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Battle of Long Island

Hofstra Pride Stony Brook Seawolves
First meeting	February 16, 1973 Hofstra, 103–80
Latest meeting	December 9, 2021 Stony Brook, 79–62
Next meeting	TBD, 2022 in Hempstead
Statistics
Meetings total	30
All-time series	Hofstra leads, 24–6
Largest victory	Hofstra, 102–60 (1981)
Longest win streak	Hofstra, 8 (1993–2001)
Current win streak	Stony Brook, 1 (2021–present)

The Battle of Long Island refers to a collegiate sports rivalry between the Hofstra Pride and the Stony Brook Seawolves, who both are located on Long Island in the U.S. state of New York. Hofstra University is the largest private university on Long Island and is located in Hempstead, New York in Nassau County, while Stony Brook University is the largest public university in the state of New York by area and is located in Suffolk County. Since 2022, both schools have been members of the Colonial Athletic Association, with Stony Brook playing in the America East Conference from 2001 to 2022.

Until the merger of the LIU Brooklyn and LIU Post athletic programs into the singular LIU Sharks program in 2019, Hofstra and Stony Brook represented the only Division I universities located on Long Island. The two schools are separated by a distance of 28 miles (45 km).

The sports rivalry has traditionally revolved around men's basketball, with the first meeting between the two schools in 1973. Hofstra first fielded a basketball team in 1935 and joined the East Coast Conference in 1974 when the NCAA created the Division I classification. Stony Brook first fielded a basketball team in 1960 but remained at the Division III level before elevating to Division I in 1999.

Hofstra leads the all-time series 24–6. Hofstra leads the series 13–5 since both schools became Division I in 1999.

The two schools used to play each other every year in football from 1984 to 1990 and 2004 to 2009 as well before Hofstra eliminated its football program in 2009. When Hofstra dropped football, Stony Brook became the only Division I football team on Long Island until the LIU Post football team, previously Division II, became the D-I LIU team.

Men's basketball

History

Hofstra and Stony Brook first faced off in 1973, with Hofstra winning 103–80. The two schools played every year from 1973 to 1975 before taking a six-year break and playing one game in 1981 and two games in 1982. Then, the matchup did not happen until 1985, when Stony Brook won its first Battle of Long Island 86–75 after Hofstra won all of the first six games. It was the only meeting until 1993. From 1973 to 1997, when Hofstra was in Division I and Stony Brook was in Division III or II, Hofstra won the series 11–1.

Stony Brook moved to Division I in 1999. In the late 1990s, Hofstra was led by head coach Jay Wright, who went on to even greater success at Villanova before retiring in the 2022 offseason, and won back-to-back America East titles at the turn of the century. Future first-round NBA draft pick Speedy Claxton would reach a career-high game with 13 assists in one Battle of Long Island matchup. Upon Hofstra's departure from the America East to the CAA, Stony Brook would take one of the vacant spots in Hofstra's former conference.

Stony Brook won the Battle of Long Island three times in the 2000s, but the rivalry was halted after 2008 and resumed in 2014. Upon the resumption, Hofstra has owned the rivalry again. Jameel Warney scored 22 points to give Stony Brook a 71–68 win in 2015, but then Hofstra won the next six games, including a 96–58 beatdown in 2016. In 2017 Justin Wright-Foreman, who would be drafted by the Utah Jazz in the second round of the 2019 NBA draft, scored 33 points to give Hofstra an 84–81 comeback win. Stony Brook snapped a five-game losing streak in the series with a 79–62 win in 2021.

Game results

Football

Hofstra and Stony Brook played each other in football every season from 1984 to 1990 and from 2004 to 2009, when Hofstra eliminated its football program. Hofstra beat Stony Brook in all 13 of its contests together, often in blowout fashion.

Following the dissolution of Hofstra's football program, running backs Miguel Maysonet and Brock Jackolski both transferred to Stony Brook. Maysonet would become Stony Brook's all-time leading rusher, the 2011 and 2012 Big South Conference Offensive Player of the Year and the runner-up for the 2012 Walter Payton Award behind Old Dominion quarterback Taylor Heinicke, given to the top FCS player in the country. Jackolski would become Stony Brook's fifth all-time leading rusher. He rushed for 1,418 yards in 2011, third-most in a single season at Stony Brook, in the same year that Maysonet ran for 1,633 yards, the second-most in a single season. Maysonet's 1,964 rushing yards in 2012 is the program's single-season record.

Game results

Other sports

Women's basketball

Precise date and location data does not exist for many of the earliest contests.

Men's soccer

Women's soccer

Current Stony Brook women's soccer head coach Tobias Bischof was hired after spending eight seasons as an assistant coach at Hofstra.

Men's lacrosse

Women's lacrosse

Footnotes

1. Defined here as universities located in Nassau and Suffolk Counties. While Brooklyn (home to LIU's Brooklyn campus and St. Francis Brooklyn) and Queens (home to St. John's) are physically on Long Island, local usage of the term "Long Island" typically excludes those two New York City boroughs. LIU itself bases some sports (most notably basketball) at the Brooklyn campus and others (most notably football) at the Post campus in Nassau County.
2. At the time of the LIU athletic merger, only the Post campus sponsored football; the Brooklyn campus dropped the sport after the 1940 season (before the Post campus existed). St. Francis Brooklyn dropped football after the 1935 season, and St. John's did the same after the 2002 season.

References

1. Lasky, Julie (2019-01-23). "Stony Brook, N.Y.: A Scenic Hamlet on the North Shore". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2021-12-09.
2. "Irish Studies: About the Program | Hofstra University". www.hofstra.edu. Retrieved 2021-12-09.
3. "Source: Stony Brook accepts invitation to join CAA". Newsday. Retrieved 2022-01-27.
4. "Stony Brook set to join CAA". The Statesman. 2022-01-25. Retrieved 2022-01-27.
5. Marcus, Steven. "Hofstra vs. SBU - finally!". Newsday. Retrieved 2021-12-09.
6. Newsday, Brian Heyman Special to. "Hofstra tops LIU in first meeting in nearly 30 years". Newsday. Retrieved 2021-12-09.
7. "Franklin News Herald Archives, Feb 17, 1973, p. 31". NewspaperArchive.com. 1973-02-17. Retrieved 2021-12-09.
8. Staff, LIBN (2004-01-09). "1935: Hofstra opens on Hempstead | Long Island Business News". Retrieved 2021-12-09.
9. Mallozzi, Vincent M. (2005-05-08). "Stony Brook's Athletics: Moving On". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2021-12-09.
10. Armstrong, Kevin (2009-12-03). "Hofstra Eliminates 72-Year-Old Program". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2021-12-09.
11. Schonbrun, Zach (2010-10-09). "With Long Island All to Itself, Stony Brook Extends Reach". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2021-12-09.
12. Charboneau, Matt. "Hofstra stuck with Jay Wright; look at him now". The Detroit News. Retrieved 2021-12-09.
13. "Speedy Claxton - Men's Basketball Coach". Hofstra University Athletics. Retrieved 2021-12-09.
14. "Hofstra, SBU to resume men's hoops rivalry". Newsday. Retrieved 2021-12-09.
15. "Hofstra defeats Stony Brook 96-58, Gustys grabs 18 rebounds". USA TODAY. Retrieved 2021-12-09.
16. "Hofstra tops Stony Brook in Battle of Long Island". Newsday. Retrieved 2021-12-09.
17. "Stony Brook men's hoops rides second-half surge to down Hofstra". Newsday. Retrieved 2021-12-09.
18. "Stony Brook Men's Basketball Record Book" (PDF). Stony Brook University. 2021. p. 41. Retrieved May 18, 2022.
19. "PRIDE LEADS WIRE-TO-WIRE TO POST SEASON OPENING WIN OVER STONY BROOK". Hofstra University Athletics. 3 December 2009. Retrieved 2021-12-09.
20. "Miguel Maysonet Lands on Big South's All-Decade Team". Stony Brook University Athletics. 8 June 2020. Retrieved 2021-12-09.
21. "Stony Brook Football Record Book (2020 update)" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 2021-10-23.
22. "Stony Brook Football Record Book (2020 update)" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 2021-10-23.
23. "Hofstra 2020-21 WBB Record Book" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 2021-12-09.
24. "Stony Brook WBB Record Book" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 2021-12-09.
25. "Stony Brook MSOC Record Book" (PDF).
26. "STEPPING UP: Ex-Hofstra associate coach Bischof to direct Stony Brook women's team". Front Row Soccer. 2019-01-25. Retrieved 2021-12-11.
27. "Hofstra WSOC Record Book" (PDF).
28. "Stony Brook Men's Lacrosse Record Book (2021)" (PDF).
29. "Stony Brook WoMen's Lacrosse Record Book (2021)" (PDF).

• Hofstra Pride
• Stony Brook Seawolves
• College sports rivalries in the United States
• College basketball rivalries in the United States