St. Francis (Brooklyn) at Long Island University, 5:00 PM, necfrontrow.com
One of the best Under the Radar rivalries in college basketball is the focus this evening for our Under the Radar Game of the Day — the Terrier of St. Francis College in Brooklyn taking on their cross-town rivals the Long Island University Blackbirds Sharks in the second of this year’s Battle of Brooklyn matchups.
The Terriers enter today’s game at 4-3 in Northeast Conference play and 4-4 overall. Their records puts them in the top four in the conference and tied for fewest losses with LIU — both of which are key this season with only four teams slated to qualify for the conference tournament. Chauncey Hawkins, Travis Atson, Rob Higgins and Unique McLean are all averaging double figures in scoring for SFBK, the team that KenPom rates 14th in fastest Tempo in the entire nation.
14th may be a fast Tempo, but LIU enters today ranked 7th in the same category — meaning that we should be in line for another high action, fast paced game. LIU, which won round one of this Battle on Saturday by a score of 102-88, also has four players averaging double figures in scoring — Ty Flowers, Eral Penn, Jermaine Jackson Jr and Alex Rivera. Penn is in fact averaging just shy of a double-double with 9.6 rebounds per game and was named co-MVP along with Flowers in Saturday Battle of Brooklyn victory.