LIU Brooklyn shows off its depth in win over Central Connecticut

January 30, 2015 By Rob Abruzzese Brooklyn Daily Eagle

Gerrell Martin led the LIU Brooklyn Blackbirds with 17 points, including five three pointers, to beat Central Connecticut on Thursday. Photo by Rob Abruzzese.

Share this:

The LIU Brooklyn Blackbirds helped their playoff chances in a big way when they beat Central Connecticut State University 67-55 in Downtown Brooklyn on Thursday night to win their second in a row.

“This one was a pretty big game for us going in,” said head coach Jack Perri. “We didn’t know how our guys would respond because we haven’t been in the situation where we could sweep a team and its’ such a young group that we didn’t know what to expect. Guys did a great job defending and I thought obviously the big thing was how unselfish our guys were.”

Freshman Elvar Fridriksson was hot early, hitting three 3-pointers, and the Blackbirds took advantage of 15 CCSU first half turnovers to take a 34-24 lead.

LIU Brooklyn increased that lead to 16 points midway through the second half when Trevon Woods hit a three and Fridriksson followed that up with a three-point play that made it 50-34.

CCSU quickly cut that 16 point lead down to 10, but senior Gerrell Martin and freshman Martin Hermannsson hit back-to-back threes that gave LIU Brooklyn a 62-48 lead with 5:13 left to play that would not be threatened again.

Martin was the key player in that second half, as he finished with 17 points including five three-pointers.

“After that first one I just noticed that the hoop was just getting bigger and bigger and I felt like anytime I got the ball that it was going in,” Martin said. “I’d rather the team get involved than to worry about myself, but in the second half driving lanes opened up, I got some opportunities to take some shots and they went in.”

After the game, Fridriksson beamed as he figuratively got a big weight off his shoulders with the strong performance.

“It was a big game for me to build up my confidence,” Fridriksson said. “I haven’t been playing with a lot of confidence…I have been hesitating too much. I lost my rhythm. But other guys have been stepping up and I was trying to rise up too.”

Perri, who is in his third season as the Blackbirds’ head coach, talked at length after the game about finally having a full roster of players. For most of last year, he dealt with a huge list of injuries and this season he was without sophomore Glenn Feidanga and had a hard time trusting some of his freshmen early on.
“We have so many guys,” Perri said nearly in disbelief. “Thinking back to last year when we had so many injuries and we couldn’t even play five-on-five. Now we’ve got all these bodies and it’s a little weird.”

With Feidanga back and freshmen Trevon and Trevin Woods and Jamil Hood starting to get more time, LIU Brooklyn’s players said they’re finally building up consistent chemistry. They added that having a deeper rotation means fresher legs as well.

“Coach has been showing more confidence in the players,” Martin said. “We have more depth and players have been more consistent. We are starting to get our chemistry going and not just on the starting five, but even when people sub in we’re all on the same page.

“Going into February a lot of teams should look out for us.”