UDC Men’s Basketball Succumbs to LIU Post, 74-61

BROOKVILLE, NY – A slow start by UDC led to a large early deficit and the Firebirds could never recover as they fell, 74-61 at LIU Post in East Coast Conference play Thursday night at the Pratt Center.

UDC fell to 4-7 in league play (4-15 overall) with tonight's loss as LIU Post won for the 4^th time in its last five games to draw even in the season series and improve to 5-6 in the ECC (10-9 overall).

Freshman guard Kory Cooley (Art – Silver Spring, MD/Calvin Coolidge HS) was the only Firebird to score in double-figures as he led all scorers with 19 points on 9-of-16 FG shooting. Junior transfer forward Geran Pope (Political Science – Washington, DC/Virginia Union) and freshman forward Andre Williams (Business Management – Maybrook, NY/Valley Central HS) combined for 17 rebounds.

With tonight's win, the Pioneers avenged a 94-91 loss to UDC in the nation's capital where Omar Abbas hit the game-winning three-pointer in the waning seconds of regulation. LIU Post out-shot UDC 43-percent to 37-percent from the field and out-rebounded the Firebirds, 42-35. The hosts featured a balanced offensive attack that saw three scorers in double-figures, including forward Tyuan Williams' team-high 15 points. Williams, who also had seven rebounds, was aided by fellow forward P.J. Torres, who registered 13 points and a game-high eight rebounds.

UDC struggled to find its offense early on, settling for four consecutive three-point attempts and mis-firing on all of them to start the game. Meanwhile, LIU Post opened on a 7-0 run and went on to open up larger leads of 17-4, 25-10 and 29-12. The Pioneers out-shot UDC 52-percent (13-of-25) to 25-percent (8-of-32) from the field in the first half and they led, 36-22 at the break.

In the second half, Abbas put the finishing touches on a 6-0 UDC run with a three-pointer to bring UDC within 10, 38-28 with a little over a minute gone by. Still a 10-point game (40-30) after a jumper by Cooley at the 16-minute mark, the Pioneers embarked on a 12-0 run over the next three minutes to essentially put the game out of reach, 52-30.

Still, UDC continued to fight, cutting a 20-point deficit to 10 after a 10-0 run which included five straight points by senior guard PrinceDylannova Ritson (Psychology – Greenbelt, MD/Bowie St.). Later, freshman guard Masner Beauplan (Business Management – East Orange, NJ/Winslow Township HS) buried a three-pointer to make it a nine-point game with 40 seconds remaining, but LIU Post's Dillon Burns made 4-of-4 free-throws to seal the victory.

Next up, UDC will look to complete the season sweep of ECC foe NYIT on Saturday, January 31^st at 3 p.m.