Long Island University (LUI)- Brooklyn rebounded from Friday night’s close loss to Miami of Ohio to hold off the University of Hartford 86-84 for their second win of the season, in Saturday’s only game of the Jamaica Classic men’s NCAA Division One basketball event at Montego Bay Convention Centre.

Raiquan Clarke scored 21 points to lead LIU-Brooklyn of the Northeast Conference as they held off the hard-charging Hartford of the American East Conference, who closed the game with an 11-5 run but came up just short of at least forcing over time.

It was a strong comeback by the LIU-Brooklyn Blackbirds, who had to come back less than 24 hours after they allowed what looked at one time to be a win, slip away to the Miami of Ohio team.

LIU-Brooklyn have now won two of their five games played, while Hartford’s record stands at 2 wins and two losses.

LIU-Brooklyn, who were involved in the two highest scoring games of the weekend, led 50-44 at half-time after leading by 15 points with just under six minutes to go in the first half, but could not put away the Hartford team that was led by Jason Dunn’s 23 points which included three three-pointers.

LIU-Brooklyn scored 36 of their points from behind the three-point line with Zach Coleman making four of his eight attempts, scoring 12 of his 14 points, the other two coming from a dunk in the second half.

After trailing by six at the break, it was Hartford that came out better in the second half, outscoring LIU-Brooklyn 8-3 to half the deficit and tie up the scores at 61-all at the 12:57 mark, but a three-pointer from Jamall Robinson restored LIU-Brooklyn’s advantage.

Hartford would not back down and came back to tie the score at 64-all at the 11:19 mark with a three-pointer from Dunne which put them ahead 66-64, but another three from Coleman restored LIU-Brooklyn’s lead at 10:24.

A dunk from Hartford’s 6′ 10” Egyptian centre Attia Hassan pushed them ahead 68-67 with nine minutes 28 seconds to go, but they suffered a big blow after he picked up his fourth foul at the 8:45 mark.

The lead continued to swing from one team to the next as JR Lynch, who had 20 points for Hartford, gave his team a one-point 71-70 lead at the 7:08 mark, but LIU-Brooklyn responded and led 75-71 and then increased the margin to seven points 81-73 with four and half minutes left on the clock.

Hartford then staged their final attempt at a comeback but fell just short when a lay- up from Hassan, as time ran out, came back off the rim and was collared by a LIU-Brooklyn player.

Clarke made all nine of this free throws for LIU-Brooklyn in his 21 points and had eight rebounds; Jashaun Agosto also scored 19 points while making two of his three three-point attempts; Coleman scored 14 points and Joel Hernandez scored 10 points as Raul Frias made all three three-point shots for his nine points.

Dunne led all scorers with 23 points in a losing cause, Lynch scored 20, Irish forward John Carroll scored 14 points, while Hassan finished with 12 in his 22 minutes on the court.