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Staten Island, NY - After playing five-straight road games, Wagner (7-7; 1-0 NEC) will host long-time rival LIU Brooklyn (5-9; 0-1 NEC) today at 4:00 pm. As always, fans can watch today's game for free through
NEC Front Row with Joey Wahler bringing you the the call beginning at 3:50 pm
Top Storylines
#1 - Wagner will look to open up NEC play with two-straight wins for the third time in four seasons against 3x defending NEC Champion LIU Brooklyn.
#2 - The Blackbirds eliminated the Seahawks from last year's league tournament by a 94-82 count in the Spiro Sports Center.
#3 - A year ago, the Green & White became the first team to sweep the season series from LIU Brooklyn since the 2008-2009 season.
#4 - Today's match-up will feature two of the top point guards in the NEC in Jason Brickman (10.1 apg, 11.7 ppg, 3.2 rpg) and senior Kenneth Ortiz (13.4 ppg, 4.1 rpg, 3.9 apg, 1.6 spg).
Quick Hits
* LIU Brooklyn enters today's game with a 5-9 record and lost its league opener at St. Francis Brooklyn by a 78-64 count on Thursday. In defeat, Brickman had 11 assists with six points while Landon Atterberry (19), Gerrell Martin (18) and E.J. Reed (11) all notched double-figures.
* On the season, the visitors have five players notching double-digures in scoring led by Atterberry 's 13.1 points per game awhile Reed is second with 12.1 points and a team-best 4.8 rebounds each time out. Martin (11.9 ppg), Brickman (11.7 ppg) and Gilbert Parga (11.2 ppg) round out the Blackbirds' balanced attack.
* LIU Brooklyn likes to push the tempo and is averaging 73.7 points per game, but is allowing 82.0 points each time out while allowing the opposition to make good on 49.0 percent from the field.
* Junior
Mario Moody has had a lot of success against the Blackbirds in his career, averaging 13.8 points, 7.3 rebounds and 1.0 block per game while shooting 61.8 percent (21-for-34) from the field. Thise season he is averaging 8.2 points, a team-best 6.2 rebounds (4th NEC) and 1.4 blocks (4th NEC) per game.
* Ortiz also had a good year against the Blackbirds, averaging 12.7 points, 9.7 assists and 5.3 rebounds in the teams' three match-ups while hitting the game-winner with 0.8 seconds remaining to give the Wagner the regular season sweep.
* LIU Brooklyn leads the all-time series by a 55-40 count, including posting a 37-36 advantage since Wagner ascended to the Division I ranks for the 1976-1977 season, and are also 37-36 when playing the Seahawks on the road.
* Wagner, which will be playing in Staten Island for the first time since December 3, is 25-7 at home (15-3 NEC) over the last three years and 123-68 (.644), all-time, at the renovated Spiro Sports Center (since 1999).
* The Seahawks enter today's game on a roll and will be looking to post their second three-game winning streak of the season.
* On Thursday at Central Connecticut, the Green & White snapped a seven-game road losing skid to the Blue Devils with a dominating 88-59 win.
* In the victory over CCSU, Wagner converted on 10-of-12 (.833) from long range in the opening stanza and 12-for-20 (.600) for the game in posting the wire-to-wire win.
* Junior
Marcus Burton led the offensive attack with a game-high 18 points off the bench.
* Led by Burton, the reserves erupted for 50 points on 67.9 percent (19-of-28) shooting, including 70.0 percent (7-of-10) from long distance. It also marked the first time that the bench scored at least 50 against a Division I team since it notched 56 in a 122-91 victory over Brown on November 17. 2000.
* On the season, the Seahawks improved to 5-1 when Burton records double-digits in scoring. The North Carolina native has paced the squad in scoring three times and is one of just two players that have not started to rank among the league leaders in scoring, checking with 9.1 points per game (26th NEC).
* In his last three games against the Blue Devils, Burton is averaging 18.7 points and 5.7 assists with just four turnovers while shooting 55.2 percent (16-of-29) from the floor and 60.0 percent (9-of-15) from long range.
* Senior
Naofall Folahan broke
Frantz Pierre-Louis' 14-year school-record for blocks with his school-record 177th career rejection late in the second half. The Republic of Benin native added one more rejection for good measure and finished with three blocks, four points and three rebounds. Folahan now ranks 35th nationally with a league-best 2.6 blocks per game and is 11th in the NEC with 5.1 rebounds each time out.
* In his career, Folahan has now blocked four or more shots on 12 occasions with Wagner going 10-2 in those games.
* Junior
Jay Harris set the tone against the Blue Devils, drilling a pair of triples to open the game and finished with 14 points with a career-high matching six assists. He is now second in the NEC with a 42.9 percent conversion rate from long range and is 24th in scoring (10.5 ppg), fifth in three-pointers made (2.3) and 12th in assists (2.9 apg).
* Thanks to the shooting prowess of Burton and Harris, Wagner converted on 49.3 percent (33-of-67) from the field at CCSU and is 7-0 when outshooting opponents this season and 0-7 when failing to do so.
* Classmate
Latif Rivers returned after missing the previous two games, and scored 11 points while becoming the fourth player at the school since the turn of the century to notch at least 1,300 (
Dedrick Dye,
Mark Porter,
Jermaine Hall). He now has 1,301 points and moved post
Art Redmond (1,291) and
Hank Pedro (1,298) into 16th place on the Seahawk career scoring list.
* Rivers, who has paced the Seahawks in scoring 30 times in his career with Wagner going 20-10 during that time, ranks among the league leaders in scoring (14.4 ppg, 10th), field goal percentage (.470, 9th), 3-point percentage (.413, 6th) and free throw percentage (.759, 9th).
* Despite failing to notch double-figures in scoring for the first time since November, senior
Kenneth Ortiz handed out six assists at Central Connecticut after failing to record an assist for the first time in 67 games at Monmouth. The Southern Mississippi transfer is among the league leaders in scoring (13.4-13th), assists (3.9-8th), steals (1.4-6th) and free throw percentage (.773-t-6th).
* Ortiz, a two-time NEC Defensive Player of the Year, was named the Wagner Student-Athlete of the Month for December after averaging 16.0 points, 4.2 rebounds, 3.8 assists and 1.6 steals per game last month. He also became the first Seahawk player to earn NEC Player of the Week accolades earlier this season after averaging 13.5 points, 6.5 assists, 5.0 rebounds and 2.0 steals per game in leading Wagner to wins over Vermont and Coppin State.
* Thanks to Rivers, Ortiz, Harris and Burton, the Seahawk guards have accounted for 70.5 percent of the offense (696/987) of the team's scoring.
* Senior
Orlando Parker notched double-figures in scoring for the second time this season against the Blue Devils with 11 points and a game-high nine rebounds while narrowly falling short of a double-double. He is 10th in the NEC in rebounding (5.1) and ninth in blocks (0.9).
* Folahan, Ortiz, Parker and Rivers comprise the Wagner senior class, which has registered 64 wins since descending on Grymes Hill and has accounted for 48.3 percent (477-of-987) of the team's offense this year.
* The Seahawks have also now won 24-straight games when limiting teams to 60 points or less thanks to impressive defensive performances at Monmouth and CCSU, forcing the teams into a combined 31.6 percent (36-for-114) from the field, including 21.9 percent (7-for-32) from deep, during that time.
* Wagner also won for the 39th and 40th times in those games when holding a lead with five minutes to play and is 47-1 over the last three years.
* Since head coach
Bashir Mason took over at the start of last season, his teams have limited the opposition to less than 40 percent shooting in 25 of the Seahawks' 45 games. Additionally, the Green & White is a perfect 10-0 when limiting teams to less than 35 percent during that time.
* Mason, who was a finalist for the
CollegeInsider.com Joe B. Hall First-Year and Ben Jobe Minority Coach of the Year awards last season, is 25-19 in this his second year on Grymes Hill. He reached the 20-win plateau for his career in his 33rd game against Chestnut Hill on Tuesday, November 12, matching Chester Sellitto's 47-year school record.
* For the second season in a row, Mason, who is 29 years and 334 days old, is the youngest Division I head coach as well as the lone head man under the age of 30. In 2012-2013, Mason led Wagner to a 19-12 record (12-6 NEC) in 2012-2013. Both his overall and NEC win totals represented school-records for a rookie coach.
* Since the start of the 2011-2012 season, Wagner, which was picked to win the 2014 NEC Championship by the league's coaches, is 51-25, including 28-9 during conference play and 21-14 in non-conference action.
* Over the last three years, the Seahawks are 26-12 in games decided by less than 10 points or in OT, 39-2 when limiting opponents to less than 70 points, 34-5 when scoring at least 70, 38-2 when leading at the half, 16-6 following a loss and 30-3 when shooting 45 percent or higher.
* Wagner is off to a solid start on defense, leading the NEC in rebounding (37.1), blocks (5.9) (29th NCAA), field goal percentage defense (.399) (50th NCAA) and three point field goal percentage defense (.305) (52nd NCAA).
Follow Wagner Athletics on Twitter (@wagnerathletics) for all the latest news and updates on the athletic department, @WagnerHoops for news and updates on the men's basketball program and Bashir Mason">@BashirMason for news on the second-year coach.
