Kelly Robinson led all Blackbirds scoring with nine points, while dishing out five assists at the Barclays Center. Photo by: Stacy Podelski/1495 Sports

The LIU Brooklyn Blackbirds women’s basketball team fell to the Mount St. Mary’s Mountaineers women’s team 66-41 in the first ever women’s college basketball game held at the Barclays Center.

The loss drops the Blackbirds to 3-11 on the season and 0-3 against Northeast Conference opponents.

Kelly Robinson led the team with nine points in the game, and added four assists and a steal. Letava Whippy added seven points of her own and two assists. As a team the Blackbirds shot just 33.3 percent (17-51) from the field and did not hit a single three-pointer the entire game.

The Mountaineers shot 51.9 percent (27-52) from the field and 50 percent (7-14) from behind the arc.

The game started off as a back and fourth contest with the Blackbirds and Mountaineers trading baskets. At the 15:44 mark, the game was only 6-5 Mount St. Mary’s. But they would go on a 7-0 run, highlighted by a three-pointer by Selina Mann and the Mountaineers would go up 16-7. The Blackbirds would answer back going on a run of their own to cut the lead to just three, 18-15.

However, the Blackbirds failed to score in the final five minutes of the first half and the Mountaineers went into halftime with a 27-15 lead.

Again the second half started off with both teams trading points, but Mount St. Mary’s maintained a double-digit lead through the first five minutes of the game. LIU was able to knock it down to a nine-point lead. Two free throws by Genise Presley cut it a seven-point game.

The Blackbirds prevented the Mountaineers from running away with the game until 12:53 mark of the half when they extended their lead to 39-29. By the 9:10 mark a jumper by Kayla Grossett put them ahead 47-32 and four minutes later they had reached a 21-point lead off of a bucket by Mann.

The game would end in a 25-point, 66-41 win for the Mountaineers.

The Blackbirds next game is on Monday when they host Wagner at the Wellness Center and Saturday’s game marked the only time this season that the women’s basketball squad would play at the Barclays Center.

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