Blackbirds Drop Second Straight; Fall to St. Francis (N.Y.), 68-52

(boxscore)

1/8/07 -- The Long Island University men’s basketball team dropped a 68-52 decision to its neighborhood-rival, St. Francis (N.Y.), on Monday night at the Wellness, Recreation and Athletic Center. The Blackbirds shot just 30.2 percent from the field in a contest that led to their second consecutive Northeast Conference loss.

Junior Eugene Kotorobai (Richmond Hill, Ontario) paced LIU with 14 points off the bench, while sophomore Tyrone Mattison (Toronto, Canada) was the only other LIU player in double-figures with 10 points.

Senior Aubin Scott (Hempstead, N.Y.) scored on a driving layup off the opening tip to give the Blackbirds the early lead, but St. Francis responded with an 8-0 run led by four points from Robert Hines. Kotorobai came off the bench and quickly got LIU back into it with a three-pointer and a pair of foul shots to make it 8-7 with 13:45 left.

The Terriers took control from there on out, using an 18-4 run to go up 26-11 with 6:01 left in the half. Hines and Kayode Ayeni each had six points during the spurt to help St. Francis distance itself from Long Island. After a layup from junior Paska Morkeliunas (Kaunas, Lithuania) ended the run to cut the deficit to 13, the Terriers ran off the next nine points and cruised into halftime with a 40-21 lead.

The second half fortunes of the Blackbirds did not improve as the closest they could get was 15 points for much of the stanza. A three-pointer from Kotorobai at the 13:10 mark made it 49-34, but the Terriers pushed the lead to 61-38, getting eight more points from Hines to cushion the lead before the starters came out for both teams and LIU managed to cut the deficit to the final margin of 68-52.

Long Island (5-9, 1-2) entered the game with the top field-goal percentage defense in the NEC at .422, but St. Francis hit 48.5 percent in the opening period and 45 percent for the game. The Blackbirds were also the top rebounding team in the league before the Terriers won the battle of the boards, 50-29, which translated to 28 second-chance points.

Hines posted a game-high 23 points St. Francis (3-13, 1-3), while Ayeni added 14 points off the bench. Allan Sheppard chipped in with nine points and nine rebounds.

LIU’s leading-scorers on the season James Williams (DeSoto, Texas) and Scott were held to a combined 11 points on 5-of-18 shooting.

The Blackbirds return to action on Thursday, Jan. 11, when they host Robert Morris at the Wellness, Recreation and Athletic Center at 7:00 p.m.