Jameel Warney didn’t want to live through Groundhog Day again.
For more than a half, it appeared that he and his Stony Brook teammates might, though. They had lost in the America East championship game four times in the last five years — each time by a close margin — and now trailed Vermont by as many as 15 points in yet another America East title game.
But the 6-foot-9 Plainfield, N.J., native took the game over in the paint and went off for a career-high 43 points and 10 rebounds as he willed his team to an 80-74 victory that secured Stony Brook’s first automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. Warney’s 43 points on 18-for-22 shooting tied Vermont’s Taylor Coppenrath for the most ever scored in an America East title game.
“Oh my God, it’s great,” Warney said on ESPN. “I’ve been waiting for this for a long, long, long, long, long, long time. The place deserves it, I love Long Island. We’re going to the Tournament baby, woo!”
THE #SEAWOLVES ARE DANCING! pic.twitter.com/XJbAn2z6G8
– StonyBrookAthletics (@SBAthletics) March 12, 2016
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ESPN’s Joe Lunardi had Stony Brook as a 13 seed meeting No. 4 Purdue prior to the game.
Stony Brook had lost in the championship game in four of the last five seasons: 2011 (Boston University), 2012 (Vermont), 2014 (Albany) and 2015 (Albany).
Warney, named the America East Tournament’s Most Outstanding Player, has been scouted by all 30 NBA teams and is a finalist for the Karl Malone award given to the nation’s top power forward. He dominated in the paint all game long but his putback with 11.5 seconds made it 79-74 and secured the win as Stony Brook outscored the Catamounts 53-38 after they trailed 34-27 at the break.
Carson Puriefoy added 23 points for Stony Brook, which had former UConn coach Jim Calhoun and his son, Jeff, on hand to support former UConn point guard Steve Pikiell, now the Stony Brook coach.
“I’m just so happy for our University, it’s a great place,” Pikiell said on air. “Jameel was awesome. My staff did an unbelievable job….I’m just real proud of my team, this is great. This is great.”
Back in New Jersey, Roselle Catholic coach Dave Boff watched the game on TV as he prepared for his own championship game against St. Anthony’s later Saturday in the Non-Public B state final.
Warney played for Boff at Roselle Catholic, but only garnered offers from Rider, Stony Brook and Iowa. Boff said the big man never really considered Iowa.
“One of my proudest moments as a coach was watching that game,” Boff said. “He’s been so close before and was on a mission this year. In the biggest game of his life he played as well as anyone could play. [Going for] 43 and 10 in a conference tournament final is insane.”
