Box Score FAIRFIELD, Conn. – Trailing by three with 7:02 remaining, the Sacred Heart men's basketball team scored nine unanswered to ultimately take control of the game and pull away from LIU Brooklyn, 84-73, on Saturday afternoon in the William H. Pitt Center. Phil Gaetano and De'von Barnett each recorded double doubles, while Cane Broome scored a game-high 21 points. With the victory, SHU clinched the six seed in the upcoming Northeast Conference tournament, and will travel to three seed Bryant for a 7 pm tip on Wednesday evening. The Pioneers finish the regular 15-16 and 9-9 in the NEC for their most overall and conference wins since 2008-09. Martin Hermannsson led the Blackbirds with 16 points, as they fall to 12-17 and 8-10 in league play.
It was Gaetano who sparked the game-sealing run, as the senior, playing in his final regular season game in Pitt Center, nailed a three pointer to tie the game at 57 with 7:02 left. He then assisted on a Barnett dunk, before Tevin Falzon scored four straight to put the Pioneers up six , 63-57, with 4:50 on the clock after a layup.
The Blackbirds tried to chip away, cutting the lead to four 16 seconds later when Joel Hernandez made a jumper, and again when Elvar Fridriksson drained a three pointer with 3:50 to go. Both times it was Gaetano who stepped up to respond for the Pioneers, as he answered both of those baskets with deep three point baskets to extend the lead back to seven. His second came just 16 seconds after Fridriksson had momentarily gotten LIU within four.
Hermannsson came back with two free throws 19 seconds later, but Gaetano found a streaking Barnett off of the inbound for a streaking layup that would be the first of five straight SHU points to put the game away for good. After Broome made 2-2 from the charity stripe, Barnett pushed the lead to double digits, 74-64, with his free throw at the 2:34 mark. The Blackbirds would get no closer than eight from there on, as Sacred Heart closed the game making 8-8 from the line in the final 1:30.
In a game where the shooting numbers were very similar for both teams, SHU turned LIU Brooklyn over 21 times that led to a 24-9 advantage in points off of turnovers. Gaetano was one point shy of his career high in points with 15, 12 of which came after the half, and added 10 assists for just his third career double double and second in three games. Barnett finished with 11 points and 11 rebounds for the second double double of his career. Tevin Falzon was three rebounds shy of his third double double in four games, as he finished with 16 points. Also playing in their final home game, Evan Kelley contributed ten points, while Steve Glowiak had a career high five steals.
Fridrikssonn ended the contest with 14 points and a team best six helpers. Gerrell Martin and Trevin Woods were also in double figures with 12 and 10 respectively.
After combining for 80 points in the first half, scoring slowed down early in the second, as the two teams combined for just 21 points in the first 12:04. The Blackbirds grabbed their largest lead after exploding out of halftime with eight straight points from Fridriksson and Hermannsson. Following a Fridriksson free throw, Hermannsson scored five straight himself, and then Fridriksson capped the flurry with a steal and transition layup to put LIU up 47-41, its largest lead of the game, just 1:34 out of the locker room.
The Pioneers called a timeout and responded by scoring six unanswered themselves to even the score back up. Kelley scored four straight before Gaetano found Broome for a layup after a Falzon steal with an even 17 minutes showing. The game would stay within two from there, until Hernandez's free throw with 7:56 remaining gave LIU Brooklyn the three-point advantage, 57-54.
Sacred Heart shot 44.4 percent from the field, 36.0 percent from beyond the arch, and made 73.1 percent of their free throws. LIU's splits were 41.0-34.5-76.5. The Pioneers outrebounded the Blackbirds by five, 40-35, and also held a 32-18 edge in the paint as well as 20-12 and 14-6 advantage in second chance points and fast break points respectively.
Scoring 10 of the first 15, the Pioneers quickly established their largest lead of the half just over five minutes in. Falzon nailed a mid range jumper to score his sixth point of the contest and give the Pioneers a 10-5 advantage with 14:43 on the clock. The two teams then quickly traded runs, with LIU first scoring nine straight over the next 1:10 to tie their largest first half lead, 14-10. The Woods' brothers sparked the nine straight, as Trevin first connected on two straight from beyond the arch before Trevon's triple with 13:33 to go put the Blackbirds up four. Broome and Robinson drained consecutive trifectas 2:22 apart after that, the second with 10:22 showing to regain a two-point lead for SHU.
The teams traded four unanswered each over the next 2:21 before the Blackbirds went on a 9-2 flurry for its third four point lead of the half, 28-24, when Trevin's jumper was good. After Gaetano answered that jumper with a three pointer with 5:58 remaining to pull Sacred Heart within one, neither team led by more than two points for the remainder of the half, as there were eleven lead changes in the final 5:39. The only two point leads came after SHU three point baskets. The second one by Broome 1:12 before the buzzer was the last score of the first and gave the Pioneers a 41-39 lead at the break.
The Pioneers will be playing in their first NEC tournament since 2012, and just second since 2009. Sacred Heart swept Bryant in the regular season, defeating the Bulldogs 83-66 on January 24 and 84-75 in overtime on February 7. Bryant concluded the regular season 15-14 with a 12-6 NEC record after knocking off first place St. Francis Brooklyn, 61-51, on Saturday afternoon. The two teams have never met in the postseason.
