St. Francis men’s basketball poised to make another run

SFC Brooklyn Terriers Heating Up as NEC Tournament Approaches

February 23, 2016 By John Torenli, Sports Editor Brooklyn Daily Eagle

Disappointed with last year’s heartbreaking finish, head coach Glenn Braica’s St. Francis Brooklyn Terriers could be poised to make a surprising run to the title in the upcoming NEC Tournament. Photo courtesy of St. Francis College Athletics

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One year ago at this time, the St. Francis Brooklyn men’s basketball team was getting ready to make a run for the ages.

Having secured the No. 1 seed in the Northeast Conference playoffs for the first time in over a decade with a school record-tying 23 wins, the Terriers appeared poised to end their well-chronicled NCAA Tournament drought once and for all.

But after knocking off neighborhood rival LIU-Brooklyn and St. Francis University (Pa.) in the first two rounds of the single-elimination tournament, the Terriers were sent home with a heartbreaking 66-63 loss to Robert Morris in the NEC Final in front of a packed house at the Pope Center and a national television audience.

The defeat reverberated up and down Remsen Street and throughout Downtown Brooklyn as the Terriers limped into another offseason having fallen just shy of the diminutive Downtown’s school’s ultimate goal.

“We’re all down, we’re all disappointed, but I’m also real proud of my guys,” St. Francis head coach Glenn Braica, a Brooklyn native, managed to utter after being on the Terriers’ bench for the third NEC title-game loss of his career.

Braica, an assistant on former head coach Ron Ganulin’s staff for two of those championship game losses, also had to deal with the departures of senior standouts like Jalen Cannon and Brent Jones following the gruesome defeat to RMU.

Beaten but unbowed, the 2015-16 Terriers (13-16, 9-7 NEC) have a new sheen to them this season, minus the grand expectations that may have weighed them down during last year’s bid for the title.

Buoyed by the emergence of senior Tyreek Jewell and classmates Chris Hooper, Amdy Fall and Antonio Jenifer, SFC Brooklyn is heating up just in time to take another shot at making their first-ever March Madness appearance.

The Terriers have won four of their last five games, and could clinch at least one home contest in the upcoming NEC Tournament with home victories over Bryant (Thursday night) and Mount St. Mary’s (Saturday) in their final two regular-season games.

“I’ve really enjoyed coaching the team this year,” Braica, now in his sixth season at the helm of the program, told the team’s website earlier this week.

“Right now we’re only concentrating on our next game,” he added, refusing to buy in fully to his team’s recent run of success. “This is an incredibly balanced league and you have to be ready to play every single night. There’s very little difference between the No. 1 team and the No. 10 team in the NEC. If you don’t come ready to play, you’re going to lose in this league. Anybody can beat anybody on any night.”

Braica and his players learned that lesson the hard way last March, and instead watched as the SFC women’s team became the first unit in school history to reach the NCAAs in basketball via a miraculous run through the NECs that featured three consecutive road triumphs.

Now, the Terrier men will have an opportunity to rewrite last year’s tale with a much happier ending.

But for Braica, Thursday’s matchup with Bryant is the only game on his agenda.

“I don’t like to [look ahead]. We play them one at a time,” he reiterated. “We work hard on defense. We just have to continue our development as a team over the remaining games and play better every game.”

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Though they don’t appear likely to host an NEC Tournament game, the LIU-Brooklyn Blackbirds will be participants in the hotly contested knockout round come March 2.

Sophomore sensation Martin Hermannsson, the reigning NEC Player of the Week, and junior transfer Jerome Frink carried the Blackbirds to a thrilling 94-89 overtime victory against SFU on Saturday, securing a berth in the annual tournament.

Hermannsson matched his career best with 25 points and Frink added 21 points and 10 rebounds for LIU, which has won three of four and will finish up the regular season at home against Central Connecticut State (Thursday) and Bryant (Saturday).

“We’ve been talking about this all year, that we want to peak at the end,” Hermannsson said. “Robert Morris did this last year. They were up and down all season and they peaked at the end, and that’s what we want to do this season.”

Last year, the Blackbirds snuck into the tourney as a No. 8 seed only to be sent packing by the Terriers in a 79-70 first-round loss at the Pope Center.

The Downtown rivals could square off again in the opening round if SFC secures the No. 4 seed and LIU grabs the fifth spot over the weekend.

The teams have split two regular-season meetings this season, with each winning on the opponent’s home floor, including the Blackbirds’ 82-67 win on Remsen Street last week.

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On the women’s side, the slumping Blackbirds suffered a 69-53 loss at Robert Morris on Monday night, dropping to 6-10 in NEC play and a deadlock with Mount St. Mary’s for the final two playoff spots in the conference.

Junior Shanovia Dove scored 19 points for the Blackbirds, who have dropped three straight but can secure a tournament berth under first-year head coach Stephanie Oliver with victories over Bryant and/or Wagner later this week.

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In a bid to defend their NEC title, the Lady Terriers put together back-to-back wins before suffering an 85-68 loss at SFU Monday night, leaving them two games behind LIU and The Mount with two games remaining.

Senior guard Leah Fechko, a key member of last year’s Cinderella run to the championship, did her best to keep the Terriers within a game of the final two playoff spots, putting up a career-high 27 points on 6-of-12 shooting and a 14-for-16 effort at the charity stripe.

SFC will try to keep its faint playoff hopes alive Saturday afternoon against MSM.