LIU-Brooklyn Goes on the Road to Upset Wagner to Win NEC Tournament
Well, if you told me LIU-Brooklyn would start the game with three charges in the first two and a half minutes, including two on its starting point guard and still control the game I’d call you a damn liar. Except that’s exactly what LIU-Brooklyn did against No. 1 seed Wagner at Wagner, winning 71-61 to win the Northeast Conference Tournament.
I talked about how Bashir Mason is going to be a coach making his way up the coaching ladder, unfortunately he wasn’t able to get to the NCAA Tournament again at Wagner. All credit to LIU-Brooklyn though, it held Wagner to 18 points in the first half and then never really let Wagner back into the game. The lead stayed at 8 or more pretty much the entire half. Joel Hernandez was the absolute star for LIU-Brooklyn tonight scoring 32 points while Raiquan Clark had 20 points and 8 rebounds. It’s no surprise as these two average 37 points per game combined.
LIU-Brooklyn has been here before making the NCAA Tournament three times in a row from 2011-2013. LIU-Brooklyn wants to play incredibly fast on the offensive side of the ball. They look to get the ball to one of their guards, typically starting four guards around a forward and look to attack. They get up an average amount of threes (ranking 125th in the country in 3PA/FGA), but they want to beat you getting to the rim and finishing.
9 in, 59 to go.
NCAA Tournament bids handed out:
UNC Greensboro (SoCon) – projected 12/13 seed
Iona (MAAC) – projected 15/16 seed
Michigan (Big 10) – projected 3/4 seed
Murray State (OVC) – projected 13 seed
Loyola (MVC) – projected 12 seed
Radford (Big South) – projected 15/16 seed
Lipscomb (A-Sun) – projected 15/16 seed
Wright State (Horizon League) – projected 14/15 seed
LIU-Brooklyn (NEC) – projected 16 seed