BROOKLYN, N.Y. — The Long Island University men's basketball team (24-10, 15-3 NEC) clinched its seventh NEC title in program history on Tuesday night, defeating No. 3 seed Mercyhurst 79-70 in Brooklyn.  

LIU secured its berth into the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament with Saturday's 64-56 win over Wagner College in the NEC semifinals, due to Mercyhurst's current status as a reclassifying Division I institution.  

This is the first time since the 2017-18 season that LIU has reached the NCAA tournament, and the first in the Sharks era of the program. LIU has now reached the NCAA tournament eight times in program history. 

Mercyhurst grabbed an early 5-0 lead in Tuesday's title game, though a pair of three-pointers by redshirt senior Malachi Davis and a basket by senior Greg Gordon tied the game at eight, with another basket by Gordon pushing the Sharks ahead. While the Lakers managed to tie up the game on three more occasions, LIU held onto its lead for a 42-40 advantage at halftime. 

The Sharks and Lakers traded the lead four times to open the second half, but a made basket by graduate student Jamal Fuller put LIU ahead with 14:01 remaining, a lead they would not relinquish the remainder of the game. A three-pointer by junior Mason Porter-Brown with 1:56 left put LIU ahead by seven points, as the Sharks held on for their eventual nine-point victory. 

Gordon and Davis tied for a team-high 24 points, while Porter-Brown and Fuller finished with 14 and 10 points, respectively. Fuller collected a season-high 13 rebounds in the win, posting his second double-double of the season, and led LIU with five assists. 

With the win, LIU has won both the NEC regular season and tournament championships in the same season for the fifth time in program history, joining the 1983-84, 1996-97, 2010-11, and 2011-12 LIU teams. 

LIU awaits its NCAA tournament seeding on Selection Sunday, occurring on Sunday, March 15, at 6 p.m. Coverage will be televised on CBS.