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Dayton, OH -- The LIU Brooklyn men's basketball team rallied from a 12-point, first-half deficit to take a one-point lead five minutes into the second half against James Madison. But the Blackbirds suffered through its worst shooting half of the season (23.3%) en route to a 68-55 defeat on Wednesday evening in the NCAA Tournament Opening Round.
LIU concludes the season with a 20-14 record, marking the first time that the school has hit the 20-win plateau in three straight seasons since 1981-84. The Blackbirds also made Northeast Conference history by becoming the first team to represent the league in the NCAA Tournament three years in a row.
Senior Jamal Olasewere closed out his career with the 32nd double-double of his career, scoring 20 points and grabbing 10 rebounds. Olasewere finished his stellar four seasons at LIU with a school-record 1,871 points and 963 rebounds, good for fourth all-time.
Olasewere's classmate C.J. Garner battled through an early ankle sprain to finish with 16 points and three steals. Garner rounded out his three seasons with the Blackbirds scoring 1,256 points to rank 20th all-time in LIU history.
Trailing 30-18 with 4:11 to go in the first half, LIU came storming back to within one with a 13-2 spurt to cap the period. After a jumper from Garner cut the deficit to 10, three straight possessions ended with three-point buckets, two coming from junior Jason Brickman and a third from sophomore Troy Joseph.
A stop at the defensive end led to a fast-break dunk from freshman E.J. Reed off a feed from Brickman to put the margin at 32-31 with seven seconds left. The Blackbirds nearly had the lead to end the stanza, but a three-pointer at the buzzer from Garner was ruled to have been released after the clock had expired.
The two teams battled back and forth before a three-point play from Olasewere jumpstarted a 7-0 run that gave LIU a 40-39 advantage. The Blackbirds had an opportunity to extend the lead to three, but a layup from Reed was blocked by JMU's Charles Cooke.
The block led to a fast-break hoop by Devon Moore, and also started a 9-0 run by the Dukes that gave them a 48-40 cushion.
LIU fought to stay within striking distance, and a layup in transition off another dish from Brickman brought the Blackbirds to within 54-51 at the 8:02 mark. But the LIU offense would struggle down the stretch, converting on just two of its final 15 shots.
James Madison finished the contest on a 14-4 run to earn the win and advance to the second round to face No. 1 Indiana on Friday afternoon.
A.J. Davis led JMU with 20 points, while Cooke closed with 15 points and Andre Nation had 14 points, seven rebounds and five blocked shots. The Dukes blocked 10 shots as a team, and also had a 39-35 edge on the glass while holding LIU to 3-16 shooting from three-point range.
NOTES: Brickman closed with nine assists to give him 290 for the season, shattering his previous school record of 249 he set last season... Olasewere scored 605 points this season, becoming just the eighth player in LIU history to score 600 points or more in a single season... The contest also marked the final collegiate games for seniors Brandon Thompson, Kenny Onyechi and Booker Hucks... Reed closed with eight points, four rebounds and two steals off the bench.