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Hernandez leads LIU-Brooklyn mens hoops Blackbirds into NEC slate

LIU-Brooklyn Senior Thriving After Missing Last Season Due to Injury

December 26, 2017 By John Torenli, Sports Editor Brooklyn Daily Eagle
After missing almost all of last season due to injury, LIU-Brooklyn’s Joel Hernandez is making up for lost time thus far this year as the Blackbirds’ top scorer. Photo courtesy of LIU-Brooklyn Athletics
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First-year LIU-Brooklyn men’s head basketball coach Derek Kellogg didn’t mince his words back in November when asked about the importance of redshirt senior guard Joel Hernandez’s potential impact on the Blackbirds’ 2017-18 campaign.

“I think he needs to have a huge year for us to have success,” Kellogg said of Hernandez, who missed almost the entire 2016-17 season due to injury. “I’m interested to see if he can do that.”

Thus far, Hernandez has done it throughout the first 13 non-conference games for the Blackbirds (5-8), who will enter the all-important Northeast Conference portion of their schedule Friday evening against visiting Fairleigh Dickinson at the Steinberg Wellness Center.

Hernandez, who dislocated his thumb during a season-opening blowout win over John Jay College last year, has been by far Kellogg’s most productive and instrumental player in the early going.

The 6-foot-3, 180-pound sharp-shooter from Teaneck, N.J., is averaging a team-high 19.4 points per contest to go with 6.8 rebounds for LIU, including a 25-point, eight-rebound, four-assist effort in last Friday night’s 74-66 win at Binghamton.

Hernandez has led LIU in scoring in each of its last six games, and looks to continue paving the way when the Blackbirds return to league action for the first time since suffering a heartbreaking 69-68 home loss to Robert Morris in the opening round of last year’s NEC Tournament.

That loss likely cost former head coach Jack Perri his job following a 20-win season that also featured the departures of standout seniors like NEC Player of the Year Jerome Frink and fellow co-captain Iverson Fleming.

Hernandez had to watch helplessly from the bench as the Blackbirds fell well short of their ultimate goal: reaching the NCAA Tournament for the first time since reeling off a record three straight NEC titles from 2011-2013.

It also put a lot of pressure on Hernandez and his fellow returnees to pick up the scoring slack left by Frink and Iverson, who combined to average just over 31 points per game last year.

Hernandez and junior forward Raiquan Clark have been fitting the bill to this point of the campaign, averaging a combined 38.2 points over the Blackbirds’ first 13 contests.

Clark poured in 21 of his 23 points in the second half Friday as LIU used a strong second half to pull away from Binghamton for its first road win in six tries this season.

The tandem will have to continue its strong play if Kellogg’s Blackbirds are to seriously challenge for their first NEC crown in five years.

That quest officially begins Friday night here in Downtown Brooklyn.

* * *

Over on Remsen Street, the St. Francis Brooklyn Terriers are also looking forward to taking yet another shot at their first-ever NCAA Tournament invite.

Despite dropping to 3-9 on the year following last Saturday’s 71-68 overtime defeat at Saint Peter’s, the Terriers boast a strong NEC Player of the Year candidate in Brooklyn’s own Rasheem Dunn.

The sophomore guard out of Thomas Jefferson High School drilled five 3-pointers en route to a career-best 25 points in Saturday’s loss while also pulling down a career-high 10 rebounds.

Dunn scored an SFC freshman record 394 points last season and is currently leading the Terriers with 14.3 points per contest as they prepare to visit Sacred Heart on Friday for their NEC opener.

The Terriers went a dismal 2-16 in NEC play last year, missing out on the NEC Tournament for the first time in head coach and Brooklyn native Glenn Braica’s seven seasons as the diminutive Downtown school.

* * *

The first of two meetings between our local college women’s squads will take place Friday evening at the Steinberg Center as LIU-Brooklyn (4-7) hosts SFC-Brooklyn (4-7) in the NEC opener for both teams.

The Blackbirds will enter the preliminary Battle of Brooklyn contest off last Wednesday’s 79-47 home loss to Navy despite another strong effort from emerging freshman Jeydah Johnson, who scored 17 points to reach double figures in scoring for the seventh time in the first 11 games.

The Terriers had won their first three home games before enduring a 73-59 defeat to Morehead State at the Pope Center on Dec. 19.

Sophomore Jade Johnson scored a team-high 13 points for SFC, which had won two of its previous three games.

* * *

LIU announced the newest members of its Athletics Hall of Fame last week.

Walter Bustamante (men’s soccer), Michael Campbell (men’s basketball), Dawn Coleman (women’s basketball), Charles Jones (men’s basketball) and Martina Wagner (volleyball) will be honored at halftime of the men’s basketball game against Central Connecticut State on Saturday, Jan. 27.

An official awards reception for the five new Hall of Famers will be held at the Kumble Theater on Friday, Jan. 26.

 

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