Sports

Blackbirds hope to soar

Jamal Olasewere heard the screams. He looked down at his teammate, Julian Boyd, grimacing with pain and could do nothing but hope.

“The way he was holding his knee, the way he was screaming, I was praying, but seeing him, I knew it was pretty serious,” Olasewere said.

There, in his native Texas, Boyd’s season ended on the floor of Tudor Fieldhouse, having torn his ACL after colliding with a Rice player while chasing a loose ball near midcourt.

A little more than two weeks have passed since LIU Brooklyn lost the senior forward, the reigning NEC Player of the Year. After an emotional win over Manhattan, the two-time defending conference champions have lost two straight games while putting up its two lowest point totals of the season.

But, having finished in the top-four in the nation in scoring the past two seasons, the Blackbirds (5-6) don’t plan on altering their offense just because their best finisher’s season is finished.

The road hasn’t changed. The distance remains the same. The Blackbirds may just tap the brakes a few more times before getting there. 120 mph was effective, but 95 will do.

“We’ve got to tinker with some things, not overhaul, and maybe be a little more patient on the offensive end,” first-year head coach Jack Perri said. “Where we were just a constant go, go, go, maybe now it’s not slowed up, but guys have to make sure they get better looks. We’re putting some guys in new roles and they’re still adjusting.”

Boyd and Olasewere possess similar athleticism and have always posted similar stats, sharing a dynamic more Batman and Superman than Batman and Robin.

Already the team’s leader in points (19.0), rebounds (7.3) and steals (2.0), Olasewere, a senior from Silver Spring, Md., has never had more responsibility on the court and can no longer afford to flirt with the foul-trouble that plagues his playing time.

“He’s a Big East-caliber player. He legitimately is,” Perri said. “His first step is as good as anybody I’ve seen. Now, there’s a very small margin of error when he’s out. He’s got to be smarter with his decisions. It puts a lot of pressure on him. He’s such an aggressive kid and you don’t want to take that away. It’s kind of a hard thing for him to figure out also.”

LIU begins conference play on Thursday but without Olasewere, C.J. Garner and Troy Joseph, who are suspended the first two games of NEC play because of an altercation that took place before the season.

Tied for fourth in the nation with 7.9 assists per game, junior point guard Jason Brickman said replacing three years of telepathic passes to Boyd may be challenging.

“I have great trust to throw [Boyd] the ball, and with some of the other guys I haven’t played with as much, so we’ve got to get chemistry,” Brickman said. “I don’t think people are going to see us as the top team without Julian and think we might struggle scoring, but we’re still in good shape here. I think we can still win the conference.”

Though the senior is upset he won’t get a chance to play with Boyd again, Olasewere said he doesn’t think the team’s title hopes have been derailed. They have just taken a detour.

“The best can still come from this,” Olasewere said. “The expectations are still the same. As a family, we’ve been here for so long. We’ve created something already. It would only be right to go out the same way.”

GAMES OF THE WEEK

Manhattan at Columbia, Today, 4 p.m.

The two schools are separated by just seven miles and have an equally close matchup on the court. The Jaspers hope to end a two-game losing streak, but the Lions need this game even more, having lost four of their past five games. Both teams saw surprising scoring outbursts last Saturday, with Columbia’s Steve Frankoski and Manhattan’s Shane Richards each hitting six 3-pointers.

Stony Brook at Manhattan, Tuesday, 2 p.m.

Seawolves stopper Tommy Brenton, last season’s America East Defensive Player of the Year, will cause havoc for a Jaspers squad already struggling to score without injured leading-scorer George Beamon, averaging 57.9 points per game.

Rutgers at Syracuse, Wednesday, 7 p.m.

Scarlet Knights coach Mike Rice’s first game back from a three-game suspension may get his blood boiling. The Orange, which opened the season 10-0 before losing a de facto home game against Temple at Madison Square Garden, have a serious advantage on the boards and are the fifth-highest scoring team in the nation, led by Queens native James Southerland’s 15 points per game and 55.4 percent shooting from the field.

howard.kussoy@nypost.com