BROOKLYN, N.Y. – The LIU Brooklyn men's basketball team fell to Fairfield in the Barclays Center Sunday afternoon, 76-72. The Blackbirds were within three points in the final 15 seconds, but could not escape with the win. LIU moves to 4-7 on the season with the loss, while Fairfield is now 4-5. LIU senior
Joel Hernandez led all players with 23 points and nine rebounds.
The Blackbirds, normally an 80 percent free-throw shooting team, struggled from the line against the Stags, shooting just 67 percent.
"As a coach, I felt like we did a lot of things well," head coach
Derek Kellogg said after the loss. "I thought the guys fought and clawed and kept coming back. But the telltale sign was the free throws. We missed 10 in the second half, 12 overall, and the front end of two one and ones, which is 14 points left on the table in what was really a one or two-point game. Normally when you get to the free throw line 37 times, you win the basketball game."
The game was close throughout, as the largest lead of the day was just six points, held by Fairfield in the final minute of play. The two teams would see the score tied 11 different times, and the lead change hands 12 times.
Fairfield would take an early 11-7 lead on the Blackbirds, but LIU used three-point plays from both
Julian Batts and
Jashaun Agosto to take the lead back, 13-11 with 12:26 to play. Though Fairfield would hit back-to-back three pointers in the final minute of the first half, Hernandez would end the period with a thunderous dunk just three seconds before the buzzer sounded, cutting the visiting team's lead to just one point, 36-35.
The two teams continued to stay locked into the start of the second half. LIU would make a run midway through the period, when the Blackbirds scored seven unanswered points to take their biggest lead of the game, 53-49 with 10:07 to play.
LIU would hold on to that lead briefly, but the visiting team would start to chip away at it. Over the next three minutes, the Stags would outscore the Blackbirds, 11-3, taking a four-point lead of their own. 62-58 with 6:40 to go. For the remainder of the game, the two teams would go shot for shot, and the minimal buffer established proved to be the difference. Hernandez would make two free throws with 1:13 on the clock to close the lead to two, and then made one more with 15 seconds remaining to make it 73-70. But the Stags would go 3-for-4 from the charity stripe in the final seconds of play, and took the win, 76-72.
NOTES FROM THE NEST
- Joel Hernandez led all players, with 23 points, nine rebounds and 2 assists. Junior Raiquan Clark had 19 points and seven rebounds, along with two steals.
- Sophomore guards Jashaun Agosto and Julian Batts also scored in double figures for the Blackbirds. Agosto had 14 points (shooting 8-of-9 from the free throw line), while Batts had 10 points, six rebounds and four assists.
- Tyler Nelson was the top scorer for Fairfield, with 17 points.
- The Blackbirds return to Barclays Center a week from today, hosting Saint Peter's University there. The five-day break is the longest break in game action for LIU since the season started.