Long Island University head basketball coach Jim Ferry was asked last weekend how his Blackbirds have managed an NCAA-leading 13 road wins thus far this season.
“Unselfishness travels,” Ferry noted succinctly, re-emphasizing LIU’s ability to share the basketball and outwork its opponent on a nightly basis.
The Blackbirds (22-5 overall, 14-2 Northeast Conference) showed off their collective abilities yet again Saturday night in Emmitsburg, Md., trouncing Mount St. Mary’s, 86-64, to clinch the regular-season NEC crown and home-court advantage in the upcoming conference tournament.
Buoyed by a mix of emerging underclassmen and seasoned veterans, Ferry’s team has won eight in a row, 15 of 16, and is seriously flirting with a return to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since the Richie Parker-led 1996-97 Blackbirds fell to Villanova in the opening round.
Of course, that all depends on how they fare between March 3 to 9, when the best of the NEC have to come through Downtown Brooklyn’s Wellness, Recreation and Athletic Center for the annual eight-team battle for the league’s lone NCAA bid.
But even if they fail to win the three games necessary for an NEC Tournament crown early next month, the Blackbirds will almost certainly receive a post-season invite to the 2011 NIT.
The main reason for the Blackbirds’ incredible success, at least according to their ninth-year coach, has been the focus and desire of each player to lift the performance not only of himself, but his teammates as well.
“It’s the unselfishness we play with,” Ferry told the Associated Press. “We have five guys averaging double figures. It’s a different guy every night. We have depth and we’re not an easy team to scout because of our personnel. Different guys making plays.
“We get to the foul line a ton. We work on it. We teach it. That stuff travels. … And these guys have bought into it and believe it and just play the right way. That’s what has allowed us to do it on the road.”
The Blackbirds aren’t so shabby at The WRAC either, posting a 9-2 mark in their 2,500-seat facility, which will play host to Bryant tonight and Central Connecticut State on Saturday afternoon as Ferry’s crew wraps up the regular season.
On Saturday, the Blackbirds’ balance was on display again as sophomore Julian Boyd put up 15 points and pulled down 11 rebounds to lead five LIU players with at least 10 points.
Sophomore Jamal Olasewere added 13 points and 10 boards, senior guard David Hicks also had 13 points and senior Kyle Johnson and freshman guard Jason Brickman chipped in 10 apiece as LIU celebrated its first regular-season crown since 1998.
Brickman was named the NEC’s Rookie of the Week for the third time this season Monday after averaging 8.5 points, 8.5 assists, 2.0 steals and 62 percent shooting during the Blackbirds’ wins over Mount St. Mary’s and Wagner.
One of three Texans on Ferry’s Brooklyn-free 14-man roster, Brickman is suddenly on the verge of quarterbacking the Blackbirds’ offense back to the Big Dance.
But he’s only one ingredient in LIU’s formula for winning, and Ferry wouldn’t have it any other way.
“We’ve gotten them all to mold together,” Ferry said. “Kids from all over the country. It fits New York. It’s the melting pot and that’s what these kids have done. We tried to recruit New York kids but they didn’t want to come. We found kids who wanted to come to New York.”
While the Blackbirds soared to the top of the NEC, St. Francis spent Saturday afternoon carving out a spot of its own in the upcoming NEC Tournament.
Senior Ricky Cadell, the NEC Player of the Week, scored 20 of his game-high 24 points in the second half, including 13 in the final three minutes, as the Terriers (13-14, 8-8 NEC) ran past Wagner, 77-73, at the Spiro Sports Center in Staten Island.
Cadell, who made the winning lay-up in last Thursday’s victory at Mount St. Mary’s, helped St. Francis erase an eight-point second-half deficit and nail down a postseason spot after failing to do so in the season’s finale game last year.
Senior Akeem Bennett scored 22 points for St. Francis, which currently holds the conference’s No. 6 seed. The Terriers will be back on Remsen Street to close out the regular season hosting Central Connecticut State on Thursday and Bryant on Saturday.
Cadell needs 36 points to become the men’s program’s all-time leading scorer.
The LIU women’s team still has an opportunity to finish first overall in the NEC after running its season-high winning streak to seven games with a 65-61 win at Mount St. Mary’s on Saturday.
The Blackbirds (19-8, 11-5 NEC) remained only one game behind first-place St. Francis (Pa.) with two to play.
Regardless of whether they catch the Red Flash, third-year coach Gail Striegler’s team is playing its best basketball of the season as the playoffs approach.
Last year, the Blackbirds went all the way to the NEC Championship Game before falling to St. Francis and missing out on their first NCAA Tournament bid since 2001.
This 2010-11 squad is eager to get back to the title game and avenge that defeat.
Senior Justine Stevenson scored a career-high 13 points in Saturday’s victory and will be one of three fourth-year players ending their respective Blackbird careers over the next few weeks.
Fellow seniors Chelsi Johnson and Heidi Mothershead will be honored along with Stevenson in next Monday’s regular-season finale against Bryant.
On Saturday, the Blackbirds will host Central Connecticut State in a game that will be televised on MSG Network.
The St. Francis women remained winless in NEC play, falling 76-69 at Wagner on Monday to slip to 0-16 in league action and 2-25 overall.
Autumn Lau led the Terriers, and all scorers, with 22 points on 8-of-12 shootings. She also hit all four of her 3-point attempts.
St. Francis will host Bryant on Saturday with Tiara Dunson, Kayla Williams, Ashley Wilcots and Barbora Galandakova receiving Senior Day honors.
The Brooklyn College women’s team was unable to advance to the CUNYAC Championship Game, dropping a 54-39 decision to Lehman on Tuesday night at CCNY.
Junior Lauren Plagainos scored 10 points for the Bulldogs (16-11), who will await a possible at-large bid into the ECAC Division III Metro Tournament.
The BC men (14-11, 9-4 CUNYAC) were scheduled to host York College in a first-round playoff game yesterday afternoon.
Junior Tyshawn Russell was selected Tuesday as a second-team All-Star by the CUNYAC in the annual awards fete hosted by the Water Club.
Russell played in all 25 games this season, posting a career- and team-high 16.8 points per game. He also amassed 2.6 assists and 1.8 steals per game.
In other local college sports news, LIU junior catcher Tyler Jones was picked as the No. 2 draft prospect in the Northeast Conference when Baseball America released its 2011 college baseball preview issue. Only Monmouth pitcher Pat Light was listed higher, but he will not become draft eligible until the 2012 season.
Jones batted .302 last season with five home runs and 33 RBIs. He scored 31 runs while with nine doubles and a triple.
The third-year backstop also threw out 39 percent of attempted base stealers in 2010. In addition, he stole 10 bases.
LIU will open the 2011 season on Friday with the opener of a four-game series in Fairfax, Va., against George Mason.
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