Box Score
The St. Francis (NY) Terriers defeated the Long Island Blackbirds, 88-84, in triple overtime, capturing perhaps the most thrilling “Battle of Brooklyn” contest in the history of the series. The Terriers, now in a three-way tie for third place in the Northeast Conference, snapped a three-game losing skid to improve to 10-13 (7-5 NEC) and the Blackbirds fell to 9-14 (7-5 NEC).
St. Francis junior guard Ricky Cadell, who played 52 minutes, was named the game’s Most Valuable Player with 21 points and five caroms. The honor could have been awarded to several Terriers who delivered clutch plays down the stretch. Junior guard Akeem Bennett (6 boards, 5 assists) scored a game-high 22 points before fouling out in overtime and senior Kayode Ayeni (16 points, 6 rebounds) and Stefan Perunicic (12 points) were also in double-digits. Senior center Herman Wrice added 9 points and a team-high 12 boards and sophomore guard Justin Newton chipped in with seven assists and three steals.
LIU looked to have the game in hand as they led 39-29 with 14:26 remaining in the second half, but the gritty Terriers scored seven straight points to make it 39-36 at the 10:44 mark. St. Francis forged ahead, 46-45, for the first time since the first half after Cadell converted a layup off a great dish by Bennett with 6:48 to play.
The game went back-and-forth in the closing minutes until Cadell hit a jumper with 1:55 left to give the visitors a 54-53 advantage. After several turnovers and fouls for both teams, LIU’s Jaytornah Wisseh (13 points) had an opportunity to give the hosts a lead with 18 seconds left, but the senior hit just one of two from the line to knot the score a 54-54. Bennett then misfired on a jumper with a second left and the game went into overtime.
St. Francis led 61-58 in the first extra period after Ayeni scored inside with 3:12 remaining, but LIU ripped off six consecutive points to take a 64-61 edge with just 56 ticks left. Wisseh hit 3-of-4 free throws to cap the run. But the Terriers closed within a point, 64-63, after a pull-up jumper by Perunicic with 32 seconds remaining. Wisseh then knocked down a pair of foul shots to restore a three point edge for LIU with 28 seconds remaining, but Perunicic calmly drilled a deep 3-pointer from the right wing to tie the game at 66-66 with 16 seconds left. Wrice then blocked Wisseh’s three-point attempt as the horn sounded to force a second overtime.
In the second overtime session, Cadell converted a layup to spot the Terriers a 68-66 advantage with 3:12 remaining, but LIU went on an 8-0 run to go ahead 74-68 with only 1:07 remaining. The Terriers answered back with five straight points to close within 74-73 with 36 seconds left. Wrice converted inside and Cadell scored on a conventional 3-point play. LIU’s Kyle Johnson (21 points) sank two free throws with 15 seconds on the clock to make it a 3-point game, but Cadell saved the day with a long trey from the top of the circle to force a third overtime with seven seconds remaining.
The Terriers led the entire third and final overtime period as Wrice scored the first four points to give his team momentum. Perunicic hit one of two from the line and freshman post Akeem Johnson (8 points, 5 rebounds) converted a layup to make it 83-76 with 2:34 left. The Blackbirds closed within two, 83-81, after David Hicks (16 points) scored five straight points with 1:22 left, but the hosts misfired on six straight field goal attempts and St. Francis made 5-of-8 free throws to put the game out of reach. Michael Culpo connected on a 3-pointer at the buzzer for the game’s final points.
St. Francis, who reached 70 points for the first time this season, shot 41.3 percent (33-of-80) for the game. They connected on just 9-of-32 (28.1 percent) from behind the arc and hit just 13-of-25 (52 percent) from the charity stripe.
The Terriers, who will travel to second-place Quinnipiac on Thursday evening, had lost six straight overtime decisions dating back to the 2006-07 season.