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Wagner vs. Fairleigh Dickinson - Staten Island Advance - Cormac Gordon)

Photo by Timothy Sofranko

Hackensack, NJ - Senior guard Marcus Burton (Charlotte, NC/David W. Butler) tossed in a game-high 22 points to lead four Seahawks in double figures as the Wagner men's basketball team shot 50 percent from the floor, won the rebounding battle 41-19, and hit 83.9 percent from the free throw line, in earning an 82-68 win at Fairleigh Dickinson.
 
In registering their first road victory of the season, the Green & White even their Northeast Conference (NEC) mark at 3-3 and improve to 5-12 overall, while the Knights, who have now lost four straight, fall to 7-10 on the season and 2-4 in league.

Today's effort marked the fifth time this season that Burton has eclipsed the 20-point mark, as the fourth-year guard went 6-of-13 shooting from the floor.  In the process, the 6-0 sharp-shooter moved to within 89 points of becoming the 42^nd member of the 1,000 point scoring club at Wagner.Freshman guard Corey Henson (Upper Marlboro, MD/DeMatha Catholic) added 14 points off the bench, while junior forward Stedman Allen (Bronx, NY/Labette CC) and freshman forward Japhet Kadji (Douala, Cameroon/IMG Academy) supplied 10 points apiece for the Seahawks,. For the athletic 6-7 Floridian, the 10 points, all of which came in the first half, are a career high as are the nine rebounds that he corralled during a productive 15-minute stint.

Sophomore forward Greg Senat (Elmont, NY Elmont / Marianapolis Prep) also delivered a productive performance for the Seahawks, contributing a season-high nine points while matching his career high of eight rebounds.
 
Malachi Nix led three FDU players in double figures with 13 points, with 11 of those coming off of 12 free throw attempts, while Mustafaa Jones and Stephan Jiggetts each scored 12 points on a combined 9-of-19 shooting from the field.

The teams played to a 6-6 tie over the first four minutes of the contest with each aquad shooting 2-of-4 from the field at the outset with Senat tying the game with a pretty right-handed hook shot. FDU outscored the Seahawks 8-to-6 to take a 14-12 lead at the 11:17 mark, capped by a two-handed dunk from Marques Townes. Wagner turned up the offense over the remainder of the stanza. Kadji, who entered the contest at the 13:12 mark, sparked the Seahawks' offense with a jumper in the paint to knot the game at 14-14. A Kadji jumper then ignited an impressive 27-13 run, as the Seahawks seiezed largest lead of the half, 39-27.

With 34 seconds left, freshman guard Romone Saunders (Temple Hills, MD / Potomac / Mt. Zion Prep) dialed in a three-pointer to give the visitors a 42-31 halftime advantage. Wagner shot 46.7 percent from the field while in the first half, outmuscling the Knights 21-10 on the boards, including a 10-3 advantage on the offensive glass. Fairleigh Dickinson opened the second half with a three-pointer from Jones en route to cut the lead to nine, the closest the Knights would get for the remainder of the way as Myles Mann banked in a layup.  Over a 12-minute stretch, the Seahawks outscored FDU 27-17, with Burton scoring 10, in taking their largest lead of the contest, 72-53, after a runner in the lane by freshman guard JoJo Cooper (Wilmington, DE/Concord). Wagner held FDU to just 4-of-13 shooting, and 1-of-8 from beyond the arc, during this stretch, while the Seahawks were connecting on 8-of-14 from the field and a blistering 10-of-12 from the free-throw line.

The Seahawks' 50 percent shooting effort is their second-highest field goal percentage on the season (50.8% at Maine; 31-of-61), while the 26 made free throws are a season high. Wagner held a decided 38-24 edge in points in the paint, and led in second-chance points by a 21-10 margin.

The Seahawks return to the friendly confines of Spiro Sports Center on January 22 when they welcome in the Saint Francis U Red Flash in a 7:00 p.m. tip-off. Thursday's contest will be streamed live on NEC Front Row (www.necfrontrow.com), the online digital network of the Northeast Conference.

Follow Wagner Athletics on Twitter (@wagnerathletics) for all the latest news and updates on the athletic department and use the hashtag #WagnerHoops for information on the men's basketball program and head coach Bashir Mason (@BashirMason) for news on the third-year head coach.