Box Score / Box Score (PDF) / NEC Tournament Central

New Britain, CT - Central Connecticut State (CCSU) scored the first 13 points of the game and never trailed en route to a 78-61 victory over Wagner in the regular season finale for both teams. Despite the loss, the Seahawks will enter the upcoming Northeast Conference (NEC) Tournament as the #2 seed and play either Monmouth or CCSU on Thursday, March 1 at 7:00 pm in the Spiro Sports Center. For ticket information click HERE

The Green & White, which had its nine-game winning streak snapped, falls to 24-5 and 15-3 in the NEC while the Blue Devils improve to 13-15 and 10-8 in the league.

Wagner again play Central Connecticut State (10-8) in Thursday's quarterfinal game as the Blue Devils will be the #7 seed after Monmouth throttled Regular Season Champion LIU Brooklyn 106-78 to garner the sixth seed.

In the first half, CCSU hit five of its first seven shots en route to a 13-0 lead before senior Chris Martin (Sicklerville, NJ / Apex Academies) hit a runner in the lane at the 13:49 mark, sparking a 7-0 spurt in just over a minute and a half while trimming the deficit to 13-7. The Blue Devils responded with four-straight points before junior Jonathon Williams (Richmond, CA  / Kennedy / CC of San Francisco) scored six-straight points on a pair of layups and two from the line, making it 17-13 with 9:16 to go until halftime.

CCSU then embarked on a 12-3 run in building a 29-15 advantage with 2:32 remaining in the first and would extend its lead out to a half-high 17 at 35-18. Freshman Mario Moody (East Orange, NJ / East Orange Campus) quelled the spurt with a pair from the line in making a 35-20 game at the half.

The Blue Devils jumped out to a 15-point lead at intermission thanks to shooting 52.2 percent (12-23) from the floor and 90.0 percent (9-10) from the line.

After halftime, Wagner cut the CCSU advantage to 13 at 44-31 at the 14:29 mark of the second on a Latif Rivers (So., Elizabeth, NJ / Avon Old Farms (CT)) three pointer on to see the Blue Devils respond with an 18-3 run that extended the lead out to a game-high 28 at 62-34 with 9:18 to play.

Despite trailing by its largest deficit of the season, the Seahawks responded with 12-straight points while fueling a 25-8 spurt over the next 7:46 that made it a single-possession game at 68-59 with 1:59 to play. During the run, sophomore Kenneth Ortiz (Newark, NJ / Science Park / Southern Mississippi) and Rivers combined for 18 points, while the defense forced CCSU into seven turnovers and 1-of-7 shooting during that time.

Unfortunately, that would be as close as the Green & White would get as the Blue Devils ended the game with a 10-2 run in collecting the 78-61 victory.

After failing to score in the first half, Rivers scored 16 points, on 6-of-10 shooting, in the second half to pace the Wagner offense. Williams also notched double-figures with 12 points and a team-high five rebounds. Ortiz, who was instrumental in the big second-half push, recorded all nine of his points during the run while adding a game-high five assists and five steals.

Horton led four double-digit scorers for CCSU with 22 points, on 7-of-12 shooting, while adding seven rebounds, five blocks and four steals. Kyle VInales also had a big game with 21 points and was 13-for-14 from the line.

For the game, the Blue Devils shot 55.3 percent (26-47) from the floor while converting 95.8 percent (23-24) from the line and winning the rebounding battle by a 32-24 margin.

The Seahawks, meanwhile, made good on just 38.0 percent (19-50) from the floor, including 25.0 percent (4-16) from long range, while also converting on 70.4 percent (19-27).

Wagner, which also saw its 10-game winning streak away from home come to an end, has posted a +11 win improvement from last season and led the conference with a school-record 24 victories while matching the school-record with 15 NEC wins.