BELFAST, Northern Ireland – The LIU Brooklyn men's basketball team fell in the final of the 2018 Basketball Hall of Fame Belfast Classic Friday night. The Blackbirds lost to Marist, 70-53, and move to 4-4 on the season. Marist (3-4) was named the tournament champions with the win.
 
The Blackbirds jumped out to an early lead in the game, going up 8-2, including five points from junior Jashaun Agosto. But Marist answered with a run of their own, outscoring LIU 27-3 over the next 10 minutes.  The Blackbirds were given a small spark by junior Ganlandou Cisse off the bench, when his layup at 6:21 started a 6-0 run, but it wasn't enough to make a dent, and LIU trailed, 37-20 at the half.
 
The difference at the break proved to be the difference, as the two teams would score the same amount of points in the second half. Senior Craig Owens Jr. and sophomore Eral Penn gave the Blackbirds a spark off the bench, as Owens would go 3-for-5 from the field to score a team-best 10 points, while Penn drew crucial fouls under the basket, and went 5-for-7 from the charity stripe to add seven points. He also had a team-high five rebounds.
 
NOTES FROM THE NEST

• As a team, the Blackbirds shot just 32.1 percent from the field, and 26.7 percent from long range.
• Ganlandou Cisse finished with a team-high three steals.
• Junior Julian Batts and senior Raiquan Clark each added eight points in the loss, while junior Jashaun Agosto had seven points.
• Marist was led by three players in double digits: Brian Parker (15), Isaiah Lamb (12), Tobias Sjoberg (12) and Darius Hines (10).
• Up next, the Blackbirds return home to the US, and have a week off before they face off against Saint Peter's University, Saturday, December 8 at 1 p.m.