(boxscore)
 1/18/06 --
Junior guard James Williams (DeSoto, Texas) reached an exciting
milestone in his career, scoring his 1,000th point but it
was not enough as Long Island University saw its rally come
up short in a 70-67 loss to Saint Francis (NY) at the Peter
Aquilone Court on Wednesday evening.
Sophomore forward Kellen Allen (Mansfield, Texas) came of
the bench to pace the Blackbirds with 17 points. Williams
added 15; including draining a three-pointer at the 11:55
mark of the second half to put him over the 1,000 point
plateau. Sophomore Eugene Kotorobai (Richmond Hill, Ontario)
registered 10 points and a team-high eight rebounds.
Trailing by 23 points (53-30) early in the second half,
the Blackbirds (4-10, 1-4 Northeast Conference) erupted
on a 23-7 tear to close to 60-53 with 9:17 remaining. Junior
Evan Meekins capped off the run, draining three from the
free throw line.
After the teams traded field goals, a pull-up from Terriers
guard Tristan Smith gave the home team a 66-57 advantage
with 6:37 remaining. LIU responded going inside to the hands
of forward Kellen Allen. Allen, making his first appearance
since an injury on December 10, scored the next eight consecutive
points to pull to 66-65 with 2:28 on the clock. He registered
12 of the Blackbirds 14 points during the furious rally.
Clinging to a 68-67 lead with 1:28 showing and following
a pair of missed free throws by LIU, Terriers forward John
Gooden put back his own miss for a three-point edge (70-67)
with 15 seconds remaining. LIU inbounded the ball with 3.8
seconds but Williams’ attempt to tie the contest was
no good.
The Blackbirds led 9-7 to commence the game following a
fast break lay-up from Aubin Scott but the Terriers would
out-score their guests, 29-9 over the next 10 minutes. St.
Francis led 36-18 with 6:20 to go before the break with
Allan Sheppard and Smith combining for 17 of the 29 points
during the spurt. They led 50-30 at intermission.
LIU next travels to Hamden, Conn. on Monday, January 23
for a 7:00 p.m. matchup with Quinnipiac.
|
