The MAAC wasn’t the only conference with thrilling games last night. The NEC race continued with another six games and two teams are starting to emerge as the conference favorites. The surprising thing is that one isn’t Robert Morris. In the biggest upset of the night the Colonials lost at home to Quinnipiac.
Long Island 82, Fairleigh Dickinson 64 — After having a little bit of trouble putting away the Knights, LIU Brooklyn took home a convincing 18-point home victory over FDU. Julian Boyd scored the 1,000th point of his career in the game. All five starters were in double-figures for LIU with C.J. Garner leading the way with 16 points. The Blackbirds only shot 35.9% from the field, but 9-18 (50%) from three helped as did a 36 to 12 advantage in free throw attempts. LIU is now 5-0 in the NEC and gets Monmouth at home on Saturday.
St. Francis (NY) 81, Monmouth 64 — The Terriers are definitely the early-season surprise in the NEC. I thought this team was coming together when I saw them play Brown, but I never would’ve expected that they’d start conference play at 4-1. That’s right were the are after a 17-point win at home against the Hawks. Akeem Johnson is currently day-to-day with a shoulder injury and didn’t play against Monmouth, but Jalen Cannon stepped up and played 29 minutes scoring 13 points and grabbing 12 rebounds. St. Francis committed 23 turnovers, which was the one negative, but SFC also shot 53.7% from the field. So they can have a pass. St. Francis takes on Fairleigh Dickinson at 4:30 p.m. on Saturday.
Wagner 78, Bryant 61 — Freshman Mario Moody came off the bench to score 16 points and grab 11 rebounds as Wagner dominated the first half and then cruised to victory against the Bulldogs. Latif Rivers scored 20 points. Moody also had three blocks in his most extended playing time of the season. The Seahawks are now at 4-1 in conference play and hanging out right below the leaders. Next up is a big game against one of those undefeated teams, Central Connecticut State, on Saturday.
Central Connecticut State 71, Mount St. Mary’s 66 — It wasn’t easy, but the Blue Devils stayed undefeated in conference play with this five-point win. CCSU survived a 3-14 shooting night from three thanks to 23 points and nine boards from star forward Ken Horton. Kyle Vinales and Robby Ptacek each scored 14 points. Were it not for 21 turnovers the Mountaineers might’ve had a chance to pull off a pretty big upset in this one.
Quinnipiac 78, Robert Morris 76 — The Colonials dropped their second straight conference game in this two-point loss at home. The two teams combined for 58 free throw attempts and even though RMU only missed two the Bobcats managed to pull out the victory. James Johnson scored 22 points for Quinnipiac. Velton Jones scored 22 points for RMU, but he had to take 17 shots to get there. This is a big win for the Bobcats and a tricky loss for the Colonials. Lucky for Andy Toole three winnable games are up next with a home game against Sacred Heart and then road trips to Monmouth and Fairleigh Dickinson next week.
Sacred Heart 71, St. Francis (PA) 68 — The Pioneers beat the Flash on the road as Shane Gibson scored 26 points. After starting conference play 2-0 SFPA hasn’t managed to win another one (which is something I thought might happen).
I’d also recommend checking out the NEC Overtime! Blog, which used tweets and videos to tell the stories from Thursday night.
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