St. Francis (Brooklyn) head coach Glenn Braica said that his team had encountered a delay in reaching Stony Brook’s campus, as their bus was running an hour late, he reached out to the opposing coach on the morning of the game.

“I called him this morning, our bus was an hour late and not many guys would do this, he called me back,” Braica said. “I didn’t leave a message, he called me back, not many guys would do that and then he offered to wait and play the game a little bit later, which we didn’t do, but I thought  that was a class act on his part. The guy’s a great coach, but also an even better human being.”

“Maybe I helped him, we have to start having bus issues,” Stony Brook head coach Steve Pikiell said. “He called me and said he didn’t know if that would have to happen. We would always work with him, we do things like that, but he didn’t need it.”

Starting on time at 2pm, Stony Brook lost at home for the second time in 30 games to St. Francis (Brooklyn), both games being decided by a margin of two points. After falling to Sacred Heart 64-62 last season at home, Stony Brook never lost a game at Pritchard Gymnasium until Sunday’s loss to the Terriers.

With new rules regarding blocks, charges and encouraging scoring with increased hand checking fouls – Stony Brook’s trademark defense has taken a back seat on most nights to their offense. Last season the Seawolves held teams to under 60 points in 20 of their games, this season they have held just Marist to under that number. Twice this season the Seawolves have given up over 100 points.

“We can score, I’m not at all concerned about that as we continue to grow we’ll be better,” Pikiell said. “Jameel [Warney], had 30 points the other night, didn’t factor into the game tonight and we still scored points. Tre can score, AJ can score, Dave can score, Scott King can score, he didn’t play tonight for defensive reasons now. Ray McGrew gets 12 and he doesn’t know what he’s doing yet.”

“We’ll keep getting guys better and our defense will get better. One thing we’ve always done here is we’ve defended and I don’t like giving up 70 to St. Francis (Brooklyn), that’s not what I want to do.”

Pikiell said that the new rules have had an impact on how they have had to adjust playing through eight games this season. Warney and senior Eric McAlister were forced into early foul trouble. McAlister, who normally draws the other team’s best post player, was relegated to a season-low 22 minutes and has fouled out of three of the team’s eight games this season.

“Our best players are on the bench a lot more than they were last year,” Pikiell said. “We have to learn to play amongst the new rules.”

Carson Puriefoy led the Seawolves with 17 points off the bench, it is not the first time the sophomore has been an impact player off the bench. He led Stony Brook with 22 points in their 90-74 loss at Indiana and has seen his playing time increase.

“When I come in I’m just there to bring energy off the bench, help my teammates out, get assists and score when I need to,” Puriefoy said. “I’m not really focused on being a go to scorer, I’m just here to help my teammates.”

Pikiell said that Puriefoy is the guard he turns to first off the bench, when either senior Dave Coley or Anthony Jackson need to come out Puriefoy can play point guard and either Coley or Jackson shift to shooting guard.

“He’s a starter, when you play starter minutes, we have six starters and you can only start five of them with the way they’re blowing the whistle,” Pikiell said. “I like having a guy on the bench who is in the back court because it’s a dangerous world you’re living in now, so you need to have a guard coming off the bench that’s a good player. He’s filling that role now. He’s a starter, he’s going to play starter minutes and he’s started talent-wise.”

Ryan Restivo covers the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference and America East conference for Big Apple Buckets. You can follow Ryan on Twitter @ryanarestivo or contact Ryan at rrestivo[at]nycbuckets.com.