BOROUGH HAUL
Wagner, LIU Brooklyn battle for NCAA bid
New York City is going back to the NCAA Tournament — but which borough will be making the trip? Top-seeded Wagner, and fourthseeded LIU Brooklyn, face off Tuesday night in the Northeast Conference Championship game at the Spiro Sports Center in Staten Island, marking just the second-ever matchup between city teams for the NEC title. The winner will be the first New York City team to reach the Big Dance in three years. The only other Verrazano battle to ever carry so much meaning came on the same floor 15 years ago, when Dereck Whittenburg’s Seahawks clinched their most recent NCAA Tournament berth by defeating St. Francis (Brooklyn). “It’s another good indication of where basketball is in New York,” said firstyear Blackbirds coach Derek Kellogg. “You get very infrequent chances to seize the day, and this is one of those. We need to leave it all out on the floor.” The Seahawks (23-8) and Blackbirds (17-16) split their two regular-season meetings — decided by a combined six points — but Wagner is the favorite to end its lengthy drought, having gone undefeated in Staten Island (16-0) this season.
Under sixth-year coach Bashir Mason, Wagner won its second regular-season championship in three years, following a 13-year gap between championships.
“We’ve been building and building and building for this moment for so long,” Mason said. “In the moment, you gotta perform. … We need to be really competitive, and composed. We can’t get emotional. If we get emotional, it’s over.”
The moment was too much two years ago, when the top-seeded Seahawks were upset by Fairleigh Dickinson in the title game at home.
Guards JoJo Cooper, and Romone Saunders, the only returning players to suffer that devastating loss, are confident the experience — the duo combined to miss 17-of-19 shots — will be the reason this game ends the way they envision.
“It’s the biggest game of our lives,” Cooper said. “It’s definitely a different feel than two years ago. We’re a more mature group. I’ve been pulling people to the side, telling them there’s gonna be up and downs, and you need to keep your composure.
“We want to finish the job, and complete the mission. The crowd does their job every night, and we want to reward them. Everybody’s confident playing on our home court.”
Under Kellogg, the longtime UMass coach, LIU improved as the season went on, winning eight of its past 11 games. With one more win, the Blackbirds will look like the program fifthyear senior Joel Hernandez was recruited to join.
“Coming in here, they had just won three in a row, so they had a winning culture, and since I’ve been here, we’ve had a lot of ups and downs,” Hernandez said. “We know it’s gonna be tough to win on their court, but it all comes down to who really wants to win, to who’s gonna fight, and who’s gonna do whatever it takes to win.”
Which borough will it be? hkussoy@nypost.com