LORETTO, Pa. – The LIU Brooklyn men's basketball team won its third-straight Northeast Conference game Saturday evening in DeGol Arena, and its second-straight on the road, subduing Saint Francis U., 83-70. The Blackbirds had four players reach double digits in scoring in the win, including double-doubles from both
Jerome Frink and
Nura Zanna, to improve to 10-7 overall this season, and 3-1 in the NEC. A second-half surge was key for the Blackbirds in the win; it was the first time this season that LIU has won a after trailing at the half.
Frink led the Blackbirds in the win, with 21 points and 11 rebounds, for his seventh double-double of the season. Zanna had his eighth double-double, with 10 points and 13 rebounds, while senior
Iverson Fleming put up 17 points and led the Blackbirds with three assists. Sophomore
Raiquan Clark had a career-high ten points in the first half that were crucial to keep LIU in the game.
Saint Francis seemed to have the upper hand in the game's opening stanza. Frink scored first to get the Blackbirds on the board, but the home team answered with a 7-0 run that would put them up, 7-2.
The major difference in the first half came over a two-minute span, when the Red Flash held the Blackbirds scoreless, and put together a 10-0 that would widen the lead to nine points, 33-24 with 4:31 to play. Coach
Jack Perri called a timeout to rally the team, and the break worked. LIU would go on a run of its own from there, outscoring the home team 10-2 over the next three minutes. Frink and Clark would put up four points each in the spree that closed the lead to just one point, 35-34 with 1:34 to play. The two teams would go point-for-point over the final seconds of the half, and Saint Francis took a 40-38 lead into the break.
In the second half, the two teams were close for the first seven minutes of action, trading the lead back and forth. Frink gave the Blackbirds their first lead of the second half with a layup at 14:51, but LIU wasn't able to widen the gap for good for another two minutes. Senior
Iverson Fleming hit a three pointer at 12:17 that would spark the game-changing run for LIU.
Over the next five minutes, the Blackbirds would outscore the home team, 14-3, taking a 66-56 lead with just over seven minutes to play. Freshmen
Julian Batts and
Jashaun Agosto would hit back-to-back threes, widening LIU's lead to 72-59, and putting the game's momentum firmly on the side of the visitors in the final minutes. Though SFU would rally to close the lead to single digits, Fleming and Frink would assure LIU's win, going 3-for-3 from the free throw line and converting a traditional three-point play in the final 90 seconds, helping LIU cruise to an 83-70 victory.
BLACKBIRD BITS
- LIU shot 54.5 percent from the field in the second half. The Blackbirds out-rebounded the Red Flash 42-28 in the win, including 17 offensive boards. LIU would score 25 second-chance points off of those offensive boards, and also outscored SFU in the paint, 45-24.
- Though the Blackbirds had four players in double figures, they very nearly had six, as freshmen Julian Batts and Jashaun Agosto had nine and eight points, respectively.
- All 10 of Raiquan Clark's career-high in points came in the first half. He also finished with seven rebounds, six of which were offensive.
- Fleming and Agosto led LIU with three assists each, while Frink had two helpers for the Blackbirds.
- Up next, LIU hosts CCSU at the Steinberg Wellness Center, Thursday, January 12 at 7 p.m.