George Washington forward Arnaldo Toro grabbed a defensive rebound and fired a pass to Justin Mazzulla, who was all alone at midcourt. Mazzulla corralled the bouncing ball and threw down a one-handed dunk with 10 minutes, 50 seconds remaining in the first half of the season opener vs. Stony Brook on Tuesday night. George Washington 22, Stony Brook 0.
At this moment, for what it's worth, ESPN gave Stony Brook a 2.3 percent chance of winning, which, let's be honest, is extraordinarily aggressive for a team that hadn't scored and committed four turnovers in nearly 10 minutes.
The Seawolves finally got the board seconds later when, after a couple offensive rebounds and George Washington foul, Jeff Otchere hit two free throws. An Andrew Garcia layup in the final seconds of the first half trimmed the lead to 10, 34-24, and an Akwasi Yeboah layup in the final seconds of regulation extinguished the lead.
End of regulation: George Washington 63, Stony Brook 63.
Led by Yeboah's five points, Stony Brook scored 14 points in overtime and won, 77-74. The Seawolves trailed 22-0 and won the game.
“I could not be more proud of our guys. We were down 22-0 and just kept chipping away and battling back. We found a way to win and that is what championship teams do,” Stony Brook head coach Jeff Boals said.
Neither the opening run nor the comeback were close to NCAA records — Southern started a game 44-0 in 2013 and Drexel erased a 34-point deficit last year — but that's a wild start to the college basketball season.
