Thomas Powers Women's Basketball Past Mount, 71-61

BROOKLYN, N.Y.—The LIU Brooklyn women's basketball team earned a 71-61 win over Mount St. Mary's on Monday night. First-year guard Brandy Thomas paced the Blackbirds with a career-high 36 points and 19 rebounds, guiding the team to its first conference win of the season. The 36-point outburst by Thomas set a new NEC season-high for the year and the first 30-point showing by a Blackbird in four seasons. Sophomore Jeydah Johnsoncontributed 16 points and freshman Ryan Weise added 11 points. Freshman Tiya Misir tallied a team-high five assists. LIU would take its first lead of the game with a 7-2 opening favor to the halfway point of the period, led by five points from Thomas. Mount responded with a 11-2 stretch of its own over the next four minutes to jump ahead 13-9 with 1:11 to go. The Blackbirds would cut the deficit to one at 13-12 on a three-pointer from Weise as the clock expired to end the quarter. The second period opened with a jumper from sophomore Ella Vaatanen and three from Misir as the Blackbirds continued to find rhythm offensively. An extended 9-2 stretch would build to a six-point lead at 21-15 halfway through the quarter. However, the Mountaineers were there to answer with a 14-6 swing to pull ahead with a 29-27 lead at the half. LIU would use a 12-6 stretch to open the second half behind eight points from Thomas to regain the lead at 39-35 with 4:06 to go. The Blackbirds would continue to hold the lead as the period wore on with Mount answering at the other end to keep it close. The lead would grow as much as five at 43-38 on a pullup jumper from Johnson with 2:24 to go. The Mountaineers used a last second shot to end the period to make it a 46-43 LIU lead into the fourth quarter. The final period got going with an old fashioned three-point play from Johnson to spark an 8-2 run for the Blackbirds to pull ahead 54-45 and force a Mount timeout. The lead would continue to build for LIU, gathering its largest advantage of the game on a made free throw by Misir to bring the score to 63-50 with 5:02 to go in the period. The Mountaineers attempted to comeback but the Blackbird defense held them to one three-pointer the rest of the way to take the matchup 71-61. NOTES FROM THE NEST

Thomas recorded the team's first 30-point game since Sophie Bhasin tallied 33 points against CCSU on January 19, 2015.
Her 36 points set a new league-high for the season with the previous season-high of 34 points set last weekend by SFU's Jess Kovatch.
Thomas earned her 10th double-double of the season and the third in NEC play.
Johnson has finished with 15 or more points in five NEC games this season.
Weise netted her third straight game in double figures.
Vaatanen led the Blackbirds defense with a game-high four blocks to go with three steals.
LIU tied its season-high with 19 assists on the day.