LIU Brooklyn Beats Wagner Decisively, Will Face Mount St. Mary at WRAC in NEC Final

This past Saturday the LIU Brooklyn men’s basketball team earned a tremendous road win and then was bestowed with great fortune as the Northeast Conference’s (NEC) top team lost, giving the Blackbirds an opportunity to capture an unprecedented NEC title “three-peat” and a berth in their third consecutive N.C.A.A. Men’s Basketball Tournament.

In a NEC men’s basketball tournament semifinal game, the Blackbirds built an insurmountable first half lead against a Wagner College squad missing perhaps their greatest advantage, a raucous student section, and romped to a 94-82 victory over the host Seahawks.

LIU was then the beneficiary of an amazing turn of luck. In the second NEC semifinal matchup, fifth-seeded Mount St. Mary’s stormed into top seed Robert Morris’ arena and defeated the heavily favored Colonials 69-60 for their ninth straight victory.

The result of this unlikely turn of events is a Tuesday night match-up at the WRAC between the Mount (18-13) and the host Blackbirds (19-13) for the NEC Men’s Basketball championship.

LIU’s 96-90 NEC first round victory Wednesday night over Quinnipiac earned the Blackbirds a noon tipoff at Wagner, a 72-50 winner over Central Connecticut State in their NEC first round game. The Seahawks registered an 11-2 record at Spiro Sports Center this year, with no win more important then a 94-92 last second victory over the Blackbirds on February 24, ensuring that Wagner would host any playoff games between the two archrivals.

Spiro—lovingly called “The Nest” by Wagner fans—is typically a den of horrors for visiting teams. One critical factor in the Seahawks’ earlier win over LIU was a raucous student section whose aggression at times spilled onto the court. On Saturday—as a result of spring break—those students were nowhere in sight, mitigating Wagner’s home court advantage.

Fueled by a large, loud fan contingent, LIU played their finest first half of the season. After trading baskets with Wagner, the Blackbirds blitzed the home squad with a 20-1 run, turning an early 12-10 lead into a 32-11 bulge with six minutes remaining in the half.

With LIU leading 49-29 at halftime, one Wagner fan was overheard saying, “We’ve got to do something! Those LIU fans are crazy.”

After the game Wagner coach Bashir Mason said “Any time you have a packed house I think it helps.” Disputing the impact of the missing students, Mason quickly added, “I don’t want to say that it affected us, that our guys weren’t ready to play because of the crowd.”

The first year coach did agree that with the Seahawk student section largely absent, the atmosphere at Spiro was “certainly different” than the last time LIU and Wagner met.

The Seahawks were not only victimized by tepid fan support, their shooting was abysmal as a result of exceptional LIU defense. Coming into the game Wagner averaged 50% shooting from the field in their past 12 games. On Saturday the Seahawks shot 40% for the game, including 4 of 24 (17%) from three-point range. Coach Mason lamented “LIU made us pay every time we made a mistake on offense.”

According to LIU coach Jack Perri, his team’s success was a result of preparation. “The last two times we played them they shot a ridiculous percentage against us,” said Perri. “We talked about contesting shots better. We did a much better job of that in the first half. Getting that huge lead was enormous for us and then we held on.”

When asked how hard it was for the Seahawks—who won both of this season’s earlier matchups—to sweep a three game series against the Blackbirds, Coach Perri replied, “Is it tough to do that? Yeah, but it’s also tough to come into an environment like this on the road in a semifinal game against a good team that plays really hard.”

Going into his team’s biggest game, home or away, of the year, Coach Perri “was confident because of who we have on our team. We have a sense of urgency and resilience, and that’s been our calling card.”

Senior forward Jamal Olasewere took only four shots Saturday but managed to break Joe Griffins’ LIU all-time scoring record by recording his 1831st point on a second half layup. About playing at Wagner, the 2013 NEC Player of the Year said, “We’ve been in this position before. We knew what it was going to take and we knew how the environment was going to be. We were able to settle down and focus.”

Wagner’s defense was simply no match for an aggressive LIU attack, Led by senior guard C.J. Garner’s 23 points, the Blackbirds had six player with double digit point totals. Superb bench play by Booker Hucks, Troy Joseph and Gerrell Martin was also decisive, as LIU’s reserves outscored their Wagner counterparts 43 to 9.

Hucks, a senior playing his last games for the Blackbirds, contributed 14 points, including two 3-balls during LIU’s decisive first half run. Joseph had 12 points and provided stellar defense, particularly on Latif Rivers, Wagner’s second leading scorer who shot 3 of 16 for the game.

Martin, a sophomore like Joseph, made the most of his first sustained opportunity in NEC tournament play. Given the opportunity to play due to Brandon Thompson’s foul troubles, Martin hit for only four points, but none so big as a first half dunk that put LIU up by 21 points.

The Blackbirds season-long resilience has earned major kudos from the team’s biggest fans. “It really is a statement about the commitment of these young men and their ability to rise above adversity and come together to make Blackbird magic,” said LIU Brooklyn Provost Gale Haynes.

Bose Olasewere—Jamal’s mother—chortled after the game. “I told you that we’d be back into the championship!” said the most vocal of LIU fans. “We don’t care who we meet, we are the champs!”