Blackbirds Defeat Dayton For Fifth Straight Win, 67-63

(boxscore)

12/2/06 -- The Long Island women's basketball team went down to the wire at Dayton but came out on top with a thrilling 67-63 victory to extend its winning streak to five games. Junior Mikaelar Whippy (Suva, Fiji) led three Blackbirds in double figures with a career-high 26 points.

After Dayton took a 31-29 lead into halftime, Long Island came out of the locker room firing. Senior Marquita Thompson (Garland, Texas) scored nine straight points to open the half and give Long Island a 38-36 lead it would not relinquish. Thompson finished with 20 points.

Long Island (5-3) used a persistent offensive attack to maintain a four-point cushion for the remainder of the contest, but the Flyers (4-5) made it interesting late in the game. With the Blackbirds leading 63-58, Dayton's Jennifer Strong drained a three-pointer to cut the LIU lead to two. Then, after the Flyers forced a turnover on the next Long Island possession, freshman Valerie Nainima (Suva, Fiji) came up big on the defensive end. Coming out of a Dayton timeout, Brittany Holterman drove the lane and Nainima planted herself in the paint, drawing a momentum-swinging charge.

Dayton was forced to foul senior Sonya Coleman (Toledo, Ohio), who hit one of two free throws to extend the LIU lead to three. Kiki Lund hit a layup to shorten the Long Island lead yet again, but Nainima drained a pair of foul shots to extend the Blackbird edge to 66-63.

The Flyers called a timeout to set up a play, but the Long Island defense locked down on Dayton, forcing Kathy Guin to run into Kendel Ross while setting a screen and causing the ball to pop loose and into the hands of Whippy. The 5-foot-8 guard from Suva, Fiji nailed a free throw to put the game out of reach and secure the Blackbirds' fifth straight win. The last time Long Island won five in a row came during the 2002-03 season, when the Blackbirds rattled off seven straight wins from Feb. 18 to March 8.

The Blackbirds shot 49 percent from the field, including 46 percent from three-point land. Dayton shot 45 percent from the floor as a team and was led by Holterman's 14 points. The Flyers outrebounded Long Island by a 38-22 margin. Freshman Connie James (Galloway, N.J.) snared a team-high five rebounds for Long Island; Ross paced Dayton with nine boards.

Whippy shot 10-for-12 for the game. Her 10 field goals bested her previous career high of seven, set on Jan. 30, 2006 against Sacred Heart, when she scored a then-career-high 22 points.

The Blackbirds will return home on Thursday, Dec. 7, when they host Northeast Conference rival St. Francis (N.Y.) at 7:00 p.m.