MOON TOWNSHIP, Pa. – After leading at the half, the LIU Brooklyn men's basketball team was shut down in the second stanza, as Robert Morris powered to a 62-49 win over the Blackbirds in the North Athletic Complex Thursday night.
 
Junior Jashaun Agosto became the program's 37^th player to reach the 1,000-point mark in the game, with his jump shot at 19:09 in the second half. Pennsylvania native Julian Batts led LIU, scoring a game-high 16 points. The 49 points scored was the lowest point total for LIU in a men's basketball game since 2016. With the loss, LIU moves to 12-15 on the season, and 6-9 in the Northeast Conference.
 
The game was slow to start, as neither team would score for the first three minutes, and both squads shot poorly from the field in the early going. A three-pointer by Batts at 15:51 gave LIU the lead, 5-3, and the Blackbirds held on to the early advantage from there. A 12-2 run that spanned four minutes would give LIU its widest lead of the game, 17-7 with 10 minutes left in the half. RMU would chip away at the lead in the final minute of the stanza, but the Blackbirds led at the halftime break, 27-22.
 
As the second half got started, junior Jashaun Agosto would score back-to-back baskets, including his 1,000^th-point. The two baskets gave the Blackbirds a 31-24 lead, but that wouldn't last long. From there, the RMU offense went to work. The Colonials would score nine unanswered points in the next 90 seconds to retake the lead, 33-31, with 16:39 to play. That run was a small part of a larger one, as Robert Morris would stall LIU's offense, and put together a 24-4 scoring spree over the next nine minutes. The Colonials would go up on the Blackbirds, 48-35 with 9:10 to play. Though LIU would chip away at RMU's lead, the damage was done, and the Colonials took the win, 62-49.
 
NOTES FROM THE NEST

• Junior Julian Batts led all scorers with 16 points, as the only Blackbird in double digits.
• Sophomore Eral Penn had a season-high 10 rebounds to lead LIU on the boards, along with eight points and three blocks.
• Senior Raiquan Clark and junior Jashaun Agosto each had eight points in the loss, while Clark added six rebounds.
• The Blackbirds went 0-6 from three-point range in the second half. LIU also had 17 turnovers in the game, which Robert Morris would score 17 points off of. RMU also had 12 second chance points, and went 15-for-30 from the field in the second stanza.
• Up next, LIU travels to Loretto to take on league-leader Saint Francis U., Saturday, February 23 at 1 p.m.