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New Britain, CT - Wagner (24-4; 15-2 NEC) will look for its 10th-straight win and the 18th in the team's last 19 games against Central Connecticut State (12-15; 9-8 NEC) today in the regular-season finale at 3:30 pm. With a victory, the Seahawks would match the conference regular season record of 25 wins set by the 2007-2008 Robert Morris Colonials while setting a school-record with 16 NEC victories. Fans can follow today's action through for a nominal fee through the Blue Devils' website or listen for free via
Red Zone Media by clicking
HERE as New York Emmy nominated Joey Wahler will provide the call.
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* Wagner (24-4; 15-2 NEC) wraps up regular-season play with a 3:30 pm game at Central Connecticut State (12-15; 9-8 NEC) as the Seahawks will look to match the Northeast Conference record for regular-season wins set by Robert Morris in 2007-2008.
* The Green & White will also be looking to set a school-record for NEC victories, breaking the mark of 15 set by the 2007-2008 team.
* Wagner will be the #2 seed in the upcoming conference tournament and play either CCSU, Monmouth or Quinnipiac in the First Round on March 1 at 7:00 pm.
* Junior
Jonathon Williams helped the Seahawks record their school-record 24th win of the year with 27 points, a career-high 12 rebounds and a career-best six assists.
* Williams' double-double was the sixth by a Wagner performer this season, but just the first on the road. He also missed out on his first triple-double by four assists as his six helpers are the most by a Seahawk not named
Kenneth Ortiz (So), who is fifth in the NEC at 4.2 assists per game.
* Williams has now recorded 20 points or more four times and in each of the last two games while notching 47 points in 47 minutes over the last two outings.
* Over the last three games, the California native is averaging a team-best 19.3 points and 8.0 rebounds per game while shooting 65.6 percent (21-32) from the floor.
* With the win over Bryant (2/23), the Green & White have now won in all seven states they have played in.
* Wagner has nine-straight victories, winning by an average of 13.4 points per game while holding the opposition to just 22.3 percent (27-121) shooting from long range. Fueling the run has been Williams, who is averaging team-highs in scoring (14.2 ppg) and rebounding (5.6 rpg) while shooting 59.5 percent.
* The Seahawks have now posted winning streaks of nine and eight this year after not recording at least one of eight games since the 1978-1979 season.
* Wagner is 7-0 during the month of February and is going for its first perfect month since recording an 8-0 record in February of 1979.
* Rounding out the double-digit scorers in the win over Bryant (2/23) was Ortiz, who scored a career-high 17 points, on 8-of-14 shooting.
* Also in the victory (2/23), the Seahawks erased an 11-point first-half deficit, marking the second time this season they have won when trailing by double-figures.
* The Green & White also won despite the fact that senior
Tyler Murray and sophomore
Latif Rivers failed to record double-figures in scoring for the first time in their 58 games together. The two have each notched double-figures in scoring a team-best 22 times. Murray is shooting a NEC-leading 50.0 percent (67-134) from long range en route to 12.1 points per game while Rivers leads the team at 14.4.
* Wagner had used big first-half runs in the first eight games over its current nine winning streak before ripping off a 14-2 second-half spurt to take the lead for good vs. Bryant (2/23):
18-5 (SHU) (1/26) / 12-4 (QU) (1/28) / 14-2 (RMU) (2/2) / 12-2 (SFPA) (2/4) / 12-2 (MSM) (2/8) / 19-2 (MSM) (2/11) / 15-4 MU (2/16) / 14-4 FDU (2/18).
* The Seahawks have won a school-record 10-straight away from home en route to recording a school-record 12 true road wins while matching Murray State for the NCAA lead. The 12 road wins are also a school-record and have helped contribute to a 13-2 mark away from the Spiro Sports Center.
* Today's game will be broadcast on
Comcast channels 185, 187 and 744 through
Connecticut Public Television and on
Cox Cable channel 144.
* On television this season, Wagner is 13-2 this season, including going a perfect 9-0 on
Time Warner Cable. In those games, the Seahawks are winning by an average of 17.9 points per game while limiting the opposition to just 40.2 percent from the floor, including 26.2 percent from long range. During that time, Williams leads the team in scoring (16.5 ppg) and rebounding (5.0 rpg) while shooting 61.7 percent (50-81) from the floor and 47.4 percent (9-19) from long range.
TWC will broadcast the quarterfinal game of the NEC Tournament on Thursday, March 1 at 7:00 pm.
* The Green & White were the first Metropolitan team to win at least 20 victories and has now done so six times in school history, including four times in the D-I era, in this the 91st year of intercollegiate basketball on Grymes Hill. Wagner also leads all NYC schools with 24 wins.
* The Seahawks have a NEC-leading 16 double-digit victories, which is just one shy of the school-record of 17 set in 1978-1979.
* The Green & White is a remarkable 24-1 when leading with five minutes to play, 18-1 when notching at least 70 points and are a perfect 9-0 when forcing at least 20 turnovers.
* Rivers has 819 points for his career, averaging 14.1 points per game over 58 career outings.
* Freshman
Marcus Burton set a career-high with 13 points against FDU (2/18) and recorded double-digits in back-to-back games for the first time.
* Also against FDU (2/18), junior
Josh Thompson registered three blocks in just 40 seconds while exciting the crowd and had a hand in two of Wagner's season-best five second-half dunks.
* Murray and senior
Chris Martin have both cracked the Wagner 1,000-point club with 1,182 (23rd) and 1,006 (39th), respectively.
* Led by Burton and Ortiz, the Seahawks' second unit scored a season-best 37 points against FDU (2/18), on 15-of-26 shooting, but was just 2-of-8 from the line.
* Ortiz came off the bench for the first time all season along with sophomore
Naofall Folahan for the first time all year as the Green & White used only its third different line-up on Senior Day. Martin, Murray and
Ryan Schrotenboer were honored in a pregame ceremony as all three started.
* Martin was the headliner, scoring all 13 of his points after halftime en route to becoming the 39th member of the school's 1,000-point club.
* Over the final 11-plus minutes of the first, Wagner limited FDU (2/18) to just 1-for-15 shooting, including forcing the Knights into 12-straight missed shots. The defensive pressure fueled an 11-0 run, leading to a half-ending 14-4 spurt that put the Seahawks up 36-20 at intermission as the Green & White would go on to post a 90-70 victory.
* The 12 Seahawk players that dressed wore pink
Under Armour shoes to raise awareness in the fight against Breast Cancer. Additionally over $450 was raised for the RJ Tillman scholarship fund. Tillman was tragically killed in a hit-and-run accident on Sunday, February 12.
* Wagner has been ranked in the
College Insider Mid-Major Top-25 ninth-straight weeks and is currently 21st.
* The NEC is one of seven conferences with three teams that have at least 20 wins, joining the Big East, Big 12, Big Ten, CAA, MWC and WCC. It is also just the second time in NEC history that the league has had three teams with at least 20 victories.
* Martin helped close out the Seahawks' seven-point win at Monmouth (2/18), hitting a floater before draining eight-straight from the line, en route to accounting for 10 of the final 14 points for the Green & White. He is a perfect 16-for-16 over the last five minutes of games decided by 10 points or less while helping the Green & White post a 9-3 record during that time.
* The trio of Rivers (14.4 ppg), Williams (13.7 ppg) and Murray (12.1 ppg) have accounted for 53.9 percent (1111/2063) for the team's offense. At least one member of the triumvirate has led or tied for the lead in scoring in all but one game this season with the exception being the Hofstra (Martin) game.
* Wagner set a NEC record as the fastest member institution to 20 wins with a 59-44 victory at the Mount on February 8th, besting last year's Blackbird squad that won its 20th on February 12, 2011.
* Head coach
Dan Hurley holds a 37-21 career record in this second year with the Seahawks and is the second-fastest coach in school history to 30 wins.
* After halftime in Green & White 17 NEC match-ups, Wagner is limiting the opposition to just 21.5 percent (26-121) from long range. In the win over Bryant (2/23), the Bulldogs converted just 1-of-9 after allowing connecting on their first four of the game.
* Did you know part? The Seahawks will not lose back-to-back games in the regular season. The last time the Green & White went an entire year without doing so was in the 1955-1956 season.
* Wagner will finish among the top-two of the NEC for just the fifth time in the 31-year history. The Seahawks will be the No. 2 seed for the fourth time and have been the top seed just once in 2002-2003. That year the Green & White won their only Regular Season and Tournament Championship.
* Ortiz and Williams have each paced the team on the glass in 10 games with Wagner going 10-0 when Ortiz leads the way and 9-1 when Williams is the high rebounder.
* The Seahawks have forced Sacred Heart (54), Quinnipiac (50), St. Francis (NY) (50) and Mount St. Mary's (44) to their lowest single-game point totals during league play.
* Since losing to Lehigh on December 10th, the Green & White are an outstanding 17-1, winning 12 of those games by double-figures while posting a +11.3 point differential.
* With its 74-67 victory over Monmouth (2/16), Wagner is 9-3 in games decided by 10 points or less, including going 4-2 in games decided by five points or fewer. Over the last two years, Dan Hurley's teams are 15-9 in five-point games.
* The Seahawks' 51 points scored in a one-point victory at Quinnipiac (1/28) were the fewest scored in a Green & White win since a 51-48 victory over Robert Morris on February 6, 1993.
* With a victory over CCSU, the Green & White would post a +12 win improvement from last year while matching the second-best win improvement in school history while doing so for the first time since 2007-2008.
* Wagner snapped a five-game losing streak against the Blue Devils with a 67-58 win back on January 14. In that game, Williams had 18 points and six rebounds while the Seahawks limited reigning NEC Player of the Year Ken Horton to just seven points and three rebounds, but allowed Robby Ptacek to score a game-high 28 points. Over his last two games against the Green & White, Ptacek is averaging 26.5 points per game while shooting 50.0 percent (13-26) from the floor and 95.7 percent (22-23) from the line.
* Ptacek (.915) and Rivers (.877) are the top-two free throw shooters in the NEC while Wagner (.747) and CCSU (.743) are the top two teams.
* Rivers has posted the top two single-season marks at the line in school history, as his 89.1 percent mark from a year ago ranks first and this year's average of 87.7 percent is second.
* CCSU leads the all-time series by a scant 16-15 margin and has won three of the last four meeting in Detrick Gym.
* A Wagner win would guarantee a rematch between the teams in first round of the NEC Tournament and mark the first time the teams have met in the postseason. Last year, the Seahawks and Robert Morris met in the final game of the regular season and the first game of the playoffs. The Seahawks are 3-3, all-time as the No. 2 seed.
* Wagner leads the NEC and ranks eighth in the nation in winning percentage (.857), while also pacing the league in turnover margin (+4.2) (12th NCAA), free throw percentage (.747) (28th NCAA), scoring margin (+10.6) (29th NCAA), blocked shots (4.2) (82nd NCAA), fewest turnovers (12.9) (108th NCAA) and assist-to-turnover ratio (1.0) (122nd NCAA). The Seahawks are also second in the league in three point field goal percentage defense (.305) (34th NCAA), scoring offense (73.7) (54th NCAA) and scoring defense (63.1) (78th NCAA). The Green & White also rank among the top-100 in three point field goal percentage (.366) (73rd NCAA) and steals per game (7.6) (76th NCAA).
