St. Francis College (Brooklyn) vs Long Island University (Brooklyn), 4:00 PM Eastern, MSG/Fox College Sports-Atlantic
The Battle of Brooklyn, Round Two, takes place this afternoon at the Barclay’s Center as St Francis College and LIU-Brooklyn square off. Today’s game is the 100th all-time meeting in a rivalry dating back to 1928. These two schools are just a few blocks apart in Brooklyn. The LIU-Brooklyn Blackbirds hold a commanding 62-37 all time series lead though St. Francis did win the first meeting between these two teams this season, 78-64 back on January 9.
St. Francis enters today’s game at 15-10 overall and 6-4 in NEC play. They are currently tied for third place with Wagner, two games behind second place Bryant and three behind conference leader Robert Morris. At this point in the season, they simply need to hold form against the teams they should beat in order to get a top four seed and a chance to host a quarterfinal round game in the Northeast Conference tournament.
LIU-Brooklyn has struggled all season after winning the league’s automatic bid last year. The Blackbirds sit at 7-16 overall and 2-8 in the NEC, in ninth place out of ten teams. They enter today’s contest one game behind Central Connecticut and Fairleigh Dickinson in the loss column. Given that only the top eight teams in the final standings qualify for the conference tournament, the Blackbirds need every win they can get the rest of the season if they want to even qualify into the tournament and have a shot at defending their title. A loss today against their long-time rivals would drop them two games back in the battle for eighth place and into a hole they may not be able to climb back out of with only a handful of games left in the season.