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« Last post by Oakes on January 19, 2026, 04:37:53 pm »
Northeastern — 6-12 (2-5 in CAA play)
Notable Non Conference wins — Colgate, Duquesne, Central Connecticut
CAA wins — @ NC A&T, vs Elon
CAA losses — @ Elon, @ Campbell, vs UNCW, vs Towson
Stony Brook heads north to face a Northeastern team that has suffered numerous injuries to members of their starting lineup this season. Their best guard LA Pratt and prized transfer portal big man out of Miami, Xander Alarie, have already been lost to season ending injuries. They took another blow recently when younger brother of former Hofstra big man Yacco Fritz, Youri, left the January 10th game vs Towson with an injury and has missed the last two games as a result. Fritz was averaging 11 pts and 4 rb before going down. It’s not certain he will remain out for Thursday’s contest vs Stony Brook— but it is something to monitor as it could make the team quite vulnerable at the rim if they are to be without both of their starting bigs.
Despite the injuries, HC Bill Coen still has these guards moving the ball well— as they rank 3rd in the CAA in assists. So they are not anemic in their scoring as a team with this many injuries might be.
William Kermoury out of Sweden, a member of the team’s bench the past two season, was elevated to the starting lineup this year and stepped up on the wing as the team’s leading scorer in Pratt’s absence and stands as the biggest threat to Stony Brook getting this win. He is a the most dangerous shooter from outside in the CAA thus far this season, shooting a conference best 47% from deep and is tied with Hofstra’s Cruz Davis for the 2nd most 3PT FGM. Kermoury has notably put up 20+ points in 4 of Northeastern’s last 7 games— and has knocked down 5 or more threes with frequency in that span. He had a season high 31-point performance in Saturday’s win over Elon and had 28 points vs Towson in the game before that.
Freshman guard Xavier Abreu has also broken out onto the scene this year as a high scoring 6th Man for Northeastern and can really attack the rim well. He most notably scored a season high 32 points vs Duquesne earlier this year and had 22 points in the team’s recent win over Elon.
They added one of Davidson’s starting guards from last year, Michael Loughnane, to the fold in this year’s transfer portal. He only averages 8 pts, 3 rb and 4 ast on a mere 30% from deep. But Loughnane took over as the team’s starting PG and has seen his usage rate increase since LA Pratt was injured. He is coming off a 15 pt, 7 rb and 2 ast performance vs Monmouth on Monday and also scored a season high 23 pts vs Campbell on January 3rd. Loughnane has also been relied upon to guard the opposing team’s best guards after spending two years in the Atlantic 10, so I suspect he will be the one guarding Erik Pratt the most.
Their front court is in a state of “break glass in case of emergency” right now without Alarie or Fritz. If Fritz is indeed unable to suit up for this game— they will be forced to once again rely on freshman Petar Pinter from Montenegro and freshman Luke Koelsch. Both of whom have very little experience getting big minutes at this level. Pinter didn’t play at all in some contests when their bigs were healthier— and he notably didn’t have more than one rebound in a single game through his first 10 games despite being 6’11”. His first game topping 12 minutes was a 26 minute performance vs Towson earlier this month in which he finished with just 6 points, 1 assist and a notable zero rebounds. He did however step up vs Elon when he had 8 pts and 9 rb. Koelsch put together a respectable 8 pts and 6 rb vs Monmouth on Monday and should see some time at the 5 as well after not getting much playing time for most of the season thus far. Fritz returning to action Thursday hasn’t been ruled out, so his availability will be something to monitor. Either way— this team doesn’t have the rim protection to hinder Erik Pratt and the rest of Stony Brook from attacking the paint.
Even with Fritz playing most games this season until recently— Northeastern currently ranks last in the CAA in opponents PPG at 80 and also last in opponents Team FG% at a whopping 49%.
One last thing to note with them. As vulnerable as they are— they do force a good amount of Turnovers (4th in the CAA) and are 2nd and steals. So it’s important for Stony Brook to take care of the ball here and not give them an opening.
——————
Stony Brook — 11-9 (3-4 in CAA Play)
The Seawolves have completely flipped the script with two gritty wins over top CAA teams in Hofstra and Charleston this week after very embarrassing losses to Drexel and UNCW the previous week. Having gone to the game, as I do most home games, I truly do not think that building has been that loud since April 2016– and this was when students were on winter break. The community is seriously getting behind this team as they get hot and should continue to climb up the CAA attendance ladder.
As hard as the UNCW loss was— this team nearly escaped with a win there. So Geno needs to have these guys walking into this road trip with the belief that they can defeat anyone in this conference on any given night. Going up against a poor defense and rebounding team like Northeastern should allow Stony Brook to get off on the right foot to begin this road trip.
Pratt is really inserted himself into the CAA Player of the Year and 1st Team conversation after a huge week— particularly his unbelievable 39 pt, 7 rb and 13 ast performance in the double overtime thriller vs Charleston on Saturday. It was the 2nd highest scoring game for a CAA player this season besides Michael Eley’s 43 pt performance for Hampton — and the third highest scoring game by a Stony Brook player after Jameel Warney (43 in 2016) and Anthony Roberts (40 in 2022). As Accelerator mentioned— the last D1 players to have 39 pt, 13 ast performances were Jalen Pickett and Trae Young — both of whom are of course in the NBA right now. I expect he’ll see a lot of Kermoury in this game.
Andrej Shoshkikj continues to put in more strong performances than bad performances of late after a slow December. He has shot above 40% in four of the five games thus far in January and is doing a good job of mixing up his outside looks with layups that is making him harder to guard. His consistency has been on the rise as he gets more comfortable and we may just be scratching the surface with him. Another fun statistic with Andrej right now: he has connected on all 24 of his free throws this season.
Richard Goods is certainly playing with serious confidence these days, isn’t he? 20 points vs Hofstra and then 18 pts vs Charleston (including his clutch game tying three in OT that kept the team alive ). Sure he struggled to contain Charleston’s bigs at times, but his hands have been seriously active lately in protecting the rim. For a guy that many, including myself, were calling a PF— having 2 or more blocks in each of the last three games vs what are likely the top three CAA teams is quite impressive. Goods averaged 3 pts on Hampton’s bench last year and we are watching him develop into a real stud here at Stony Brook. Goods will have his off nights scoring— but hopefully he follows Andrej in stringing together more positive games with consistency. If he and Pratt can each go for close to 20 pts in a game— this will be a tough team to compete with in this conference. Goods should assert his size vs these brittle Northeastern bigs on Thursday as he looks to keep it rolling.
Rob Brown continues to stay hot from three and has been a bit more selective in his looks than we saw earlier this season. He has connected on 11 of his last 19 threes (58%) over the last three games. The hotter Goods and Andrej get next to Pratt— the more open Brown will be on the wing and he has been playing that role well.
This bench gave Stony Brook such a boost vs Charleston and I’m beyond excited to see how they’ll look the rest of the season. Ethan Simmon and Jonah Butler are a big part of the future of this team and could very well find themselves in the starting lineup next year — but they are also very much here and ready to contribute in big moments now. I really can’t remember a time when Stony Brook was this deep on the wing.
I’m particularly amped to see how Butler performs against Northeastern after capturing the hearts of fans with his tough nosed play vs Charleston. Depending on the flow of the game— he has to be a serious option for Geno down the stretch at the end of games. I think it’s only a matter of time before he catches fire from deep as his reps increase. His defense is also something that is really growing on me. Geno deserves all the credit for recruiting him out of Kentucky. This is one tough freshman.
Conclusion
While Kermoury is going to be a tough player to contain— he is one man and this is a severely wounded roster. Pratt and him should be close to canceling each other out (and I think that might be a best case scenario for Northeastern). But they will need more than just he and Abreu to score to beat this red hot Seawolves offense that seems to be swimming in lava of late.
Let’s hope this strong ball movement continues. Northeastern’s lack of defense and rebounding is something that can be exploited by Geno Ford and his blossoming cast of offensive threats.
Playing at home or not— this is Stony Brook’s game to lose. The Seawolves are now 9-2 at home. A strong win over Northeastern to start this roadtrip will go a long way for a team that’s looking to prove their recent strong play will translate outside of Island Federal Credit Union Arena.
Go Seawolves.
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