When Glenn Braica first met his senior point guard years ago, he mistook Brent Jones for a young kid, he was so small in stature.
“He looked like he was 12,” the St. Francis Brooklyn coach said with a smile. “I thought it was his little brother.”
There was nothing little about the Brooklyn point guard Wednesday night.
Braica’s first recruit at St. Francis saved the best performance of his college career for his biggest game to date, pouring in a career-high 31 points to lift the top-seeded Terriers to a hard-fought 79-70 victory over LIU at The Pope Physical Education Center in Brooklyn Heights and a berth in the NEC semifinals Saturday afternoon.
“All I wanted to do was win,” the smooth 5-foot-11 senior said. “Stuff like this — first place, having a chance to go to the NCAA Tournament — I never would’ve thought that.”
St. Francis (22-10) snapped an eight-game losing streak in the conference tournament, the Terriers’ last win coming in 2003 when they reached the final. They will meet fifth-seeded St. Francis (Pa.) on Saturday at 2 p.m. in Brooklyn, just two wins way from reaching their first NCAA Tournament.
With LIU not letting NEC Player of the Year Jalen Cannon beat them — the senior was limited to 15 points on 11 shot attempts, though he also grabbed 15 rebounds — Jones made the Blackbirds pay for trying to contain him with single coverage. He buried them in an avalanche of long jump shots, drives to the basket and also sank 12-of-14 free throws. His biggest shot was a 3-pointer with 4:06 left that extended a seven-point lead to 10.
“I had to be aggressive the whole game,” said Jones, who also had five assists. “Defensively, offensively.”
Jones said he hasn’t thought much about what it would mean to reach the NCAA Tournament and his focus is on Saturday. But when pressed on how significant it would be for a Brooklyn kid to lead his hometown school to its first bid to The Big Dance, he couldn’t help but smile.
“I’m from Brooklyn, I take pride in that,” he said. “It would be unbelievable for the school and Coach Braica.”
There is still a long way to go. Wednesday night was far from easy. The Terriers quickly realized how difficult punching their ticket to the field of 68 will be, far tougher than it was to run through the NEC regular season at 15-3.
Just 3:09 after the opening tipoff, St. Francis (22-10) trailed 10-2. Following a furious 33-10 run, fueled by the team’s star seniors Cannon and Jones, that threatened to blow the ceiling off the tiny gymnasium, it seemed the Terriers had the game well under control, comfortably up 35-22 at the break.
But the second half started just like the first, LIU keeping the ball out of Cannon’s hands and trimming the 13-point halftime deficit to two, 44-42, on a Martin Hermannsson jumper with 10:21 left.
Cannon took over from there, igniting a 13-4 run, with five straight points. Braica went to a trap, and the lead quickly expanded back into double-figures.
“We know how hard it is to win one game,” Braica said. “We’re just taking it one possession at a time, one practice at a time, one game at a time, one whatever at a time. We’re going to do our best. Whatever happens, happens. I’m not putting pressure on the kids. They’ve done more than anybody thought they could.”
One down, two to go.