LOWELL, Mass. – Sophomore Anthony Blunt (Crownsville, Md.) turned in a career night to help lead the UMass Lowell men's basketball team (14-13, 6-9 AE) to an exciting, 67-50 victory against Stony Brook (16-13, 8-8 AE) on Wednesday.
 
"It was great to get back in the win column," said Head Coach Pat Duquette. "We've struggled the last week and a half. It's been hard for everybody because we feel like we're better than what we've been playing. We played as good of defense as we've played all year. We played the full, 40 minutes and held them to just 50 points. There was no quit in that team. A huge shoutout to Geno Ford and the job he has done at Stony Brook under extreme adversity, his kids continued to play hard. They didn't back down or quit, but we just kept playing defense. It was the defense that kept us in the game tonight and won it for us to be honest."
 
Anthony Blunt shot 55.6% (5-9) from the field with a personal-best three, threes for a career-high 15 points. Classmate Ayinde Hikim (Washington, D.C.) led all scorers with 20 points, going 8-for-10 from the foul line to match a career high of his own. Sophomore Max Brooks (Waldorf, Md.), who chipped in with 10 points, matched a personal best with 11 rebounds for his fourth, double-double of the year, while junior Kalil Thomas (New Orleans, La.) rounded out the double-digit scorers with 10 points, as well.
 
As a team, the River Hawks held the Seawolves to just 28.6% (18-63) from the floor and forced 16 turnovers.
 
Although the Seawolves secured the first points of the night, threes from sophomore Quinton Mincey (Upper Marlboro, Md.) and Anthony Blunt bookended an early, 12-3 River Hawk run to help the home team create a quick advantage. An and-1 by Anthony Blunt would then stretch the margin to 17-8, with 11:43 remaining in the first half.
 
Thomas snapped a six-minute scoring drought with an off-balance three from the corner to create the first double-digit margin of the night and followed that up with a huge swat on the other end, but the Seawolves responded with seven straight points to cut the difference to 20-17 at 2:34. However, senior Allin Blunt (Crownsville, Md.) and Hikim logged consecutive buckets in the last 90 seconds to give the home team some breathing room, up 24-17, at the break.
 
Coming out of halftime, Brooks put on his own dunk show with four early slams and Hikim added back-to-back triples to help the River Hawks pull away, 36-22, at 16:45. Stony Brook cut the difference to nine on three occasions before the Blunt brothers combined for seven of the team's next 10 points to give UMass Lowell a 51-36 edge with less than 10 minutes to play.
 
The visitors took advantage of their chances at the line to pull within 10. Brooks stuffed another, though, to keep the momentum in favor of the home team. The River Hawks scored the final seven points of the night, including a pull-up three in the waning seconds to seal his career performance and the victory.
 
The River Hawks head to Vermont to close out the month on Saturday, February 26. Tipoff for that matchup is set for 2 p.m.