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Staten Island, NY - Wagner clinched the No. 2 seed for the third straight season with a dominating 74-45 victory over Saint Francis U in Northeast Conference (NEC) action at the Spiro Sports Center.

With their season-best seventh straight win, the Seahawks improve to 17-11 and 11-4 in the Northeast Conference (NEC) while the Red Flash falls to 9-19 and 7-8 in the league.

The Green & White grabbed control of the game from the onset and never looked back. After winning the tip, senior Naofall Folahan (Cotonou, Republic of Benin / Wilbraham & Monson Academy (MA)) opened the scoring with a layup classmate Kenneth Ortiz (Newark, NJ / Southern Mississippi) scored the next seven points in giving Wagner a quick 9-0 lead with just under 17 minutes remaining.

SFU would hang tight and trim the deficit to 15-12 with 11:23 remaining in the first half only to see the Seahawks answer with six-straight points. Junior Mario Moody (Jersey City, NJ / East Orange Campus) started the spurt with a dunk before sophomore Langston Burnett (Beltsville, MD / St. Vincent Pallotti) tipped in an errant shot and Ortiz converted a layup to make it a 21-12 game with just over 10 minutes until halftime.

Moody then took over, scoring 12 of the Green & White's final 14 points in the opening stanza in helping extend the lead out to 35-22 at the break.

In the decisive half, Moody scored 16 points, on 7-of-9 shooting, while leading a dominant frontcourt effort in which the Seahawks outscored the visitors by a 22-4 count in the paint.

After halftime, the Wagner lead would grow to a game-high 32 as the Seahawks had little trouble in disposing Saint Francis U for the fourth-straight time while being able to rest many of their starters in the process.

All 11 Green & White players scored, led by Moody's career-high matching 19 while Ortiz (15) and Rivers (10) each notched double-figures. Ortiz is now just 15 points shy of becoming the 41st Wagner player to hit for 1,000 points on Grymes Hill while Rivers is six markers shy of reaching the 1,500-point plateau.

While the Seahawks' offense shot a blistering 50.0 percent (50.0) from the field, it was their defense that was the story of the game. The Green & White surrendered a season-low 45 points to SFU while holding the Red Flash to just 25.0 percent (15-of-60) shooting, including 25.0 percent (7-of-28) from deep, while forcing 10 miscues that led to a 14-3 advantage in points off turnovers.

Ronnie Drinnon led the Red Flash with 12 points and seven rebounds.

In Wagner's current seven-game winning streak, the Seahawks have limited the opposition to less than 70 points each time out and are now 15-0 this season when hitting the standard. Additionally, since Bashir Mason took over as head coach for the 2012-2013 season the Green & White have held opponents to less than 40 percent shooting in 31-of-59 (.525) games.

Wagner will next close out the regular season against Robert Morris on Saturday, March 1 at 6:00 pm in a game that will be televised regionally by MSG and FCS.

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