Olasewere, Garner Lead LIU Brooklyn To 96-90 Win Over Quinnipiac on Senior Day

By halftime of Saturday’s Northeast Conference (NEC) men’s basketball game between hometown LIU Brooklyn and Quinnipiac, a cloud of despair blanketed sections of the Wellness, Recreation and Athletic Center, home of the Blackbirds.

Down 43-34 at halftime to a hot-shooting Quinnipiac squad, the Blackbirds were facing a potentially devastating defeat in their last regular season game of a topsy-turvy season—a campaign that had seen 2012 NEC Player of the Year Julian Boyd lost to injury and a number of agonizingly close games. Fans who jam the bleachers behind the Blackbirds’ bench—whose ranks were swollen due to a Senior Day celebration—feared a loss to the Bobcats that would force LIU to open the 2013 Northeast Conference (NEC) Men’s Basketball tournament on the road.

Bose Olaswere would have nothing to do with this defeatist thinking.

“We are going to win this game, you’ll see,” shouted Bose, among the most outspoken of the fans that sit in the LIU player’s family and friends section. “They (Quinnipiac) cannot keep shooting so well.”

Bose had ample reason to be confident. Her son Jamal just happens to be LIU’s star forward—as well as one of the nation’s top mid-major players—and with many of his family and friends looking on, the younger Olasewere poured in a career high 33 points to lead the Blackbirds to a 96-90 win over the Bobcats, guaranteeing LIU a first round NEC tournament game this Wednesday at the WRAC.

Olasewere had lots of help during a second half surge that saw LIU torch Quinnipiac’s defense for 62 points. LIU guard C.J. Garner, who also played on the same Maryland high school team as Olasewere, poured in a career high 30 points, as the two seniors lifted their teammates to a win over a Bobcat squad that came to Brooklyn sporting seven wins in their previous eight games.

Despite the big halftime deficit, Olasewere said the Blackbirds didn’t panic. “We’re taught to keep on an even keel,” said the 2013 NEC Player of the Year candidate. “Down nine going into the second half, we knew what the problem was. We had to box them out, get them off the boards, cut off middle penetration.”

LIU Brooklyn coach Jack Perri had faith that his senior-studded team would come on strong after intermission. “These guys know, ‘Hey, make the adjustments’ and they did that. They’ve done it all year.”

Added Perri: “We’ve had some games where we’ve had trouble in the first half and make a little adjustment and step it up in the second.”

After halftime the Blackbirds stepped up big time. Quinnipiac sophomore Zaid Hearst, who with 14 first half points seemed poised to single-handedly ruin LIU’s Senior Day, scored only four points after intermission, thanks to suffocating defense by Garner. Spending long stretches on the Quinnipiac bench, Hearst had lots of company. Ike Azotam (6 points), the Bobcats leading scorer, logged only 17 minutes of playing time due to foul trouble.

In all, 48 personal fouls were assessed, at times leading the backbencher fans behind the Blackbird bench to wonder if the referees called fouls simply to keep the game interesting.

Once LIU took the lead for good at 46-45 on a layup from senior Brandon Thompson, Olasewere and Garner made sure the Bobcats would not catch up. With his mother Sheree Evans-Garner urging him on from the stands, Garner caught fire after intermission, scoring 26 points on 8 of 11 shooting from the floor and 9 of 12 from the charity stripe.

As a team, LIU ended up hitting a blistering 19 of 28 (68 %) from the floor in the second half and 55% for the game. The Blackbirds also helped themselves immensely by hitting 25 of their 33 foul shots.

Given how much the game meant to his graduating teammates—including Brandon Thompson, Kenny Onyechi and Booker Hucks—Olasewere said “We have five seniors and we couldn’t go out like this, there’s too much on the line.” A charter member of the class of 2013 that has captured the last two Northeast Conference men’s basketball tournaments, Olasewere added, “We couldn’t let this game be our last one in this gym.”

Coach Perri couldn’t agree more. “In the second half you really couldn’t ask for much more from these seniors,” said Perri. “They all contributed, and that’s exactly how you want Senior Day to go.”

Next up for the Blackbirds (17-13, 12-6 NEC) is a rematch against these very same Bobcats (15-15, 11-7 NEC) on Wednesday at 7 p.m. LIU Provost Gale Stephen Haynes was ecstatic as her beloved Blackbirds look to capture their third straight NEC Championship. “What a marvelous win! This puts us on our way to a run for another championship.”