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"Playing For Something Bigger than Basketball" - by Cormac Gordon,
Staten Island AdvancePost Game Highlights: Central Connecticut vs. Wagner (January 31, 2015)Senior guard Marcus Burton Talks To Joey Wahler About His Career MilestoneStaten Island Advance Recap (Cormac Gordon)
Staten Island, NY - Led by a 21-point outing by senior guard
Marcus Burton (Charlotte, NC/David W. Butler), which included the 1,000
0th of his career, the Wagner men's basketball team earned an 86-55 win over Central Connecticut in front of a crowd of 1,783 at the Spiro Sports Center.
On ALS Awareness Day, with 10% of all ticket sales benefitting ALS research,
each Seahawk player wore a T-Shirt emblazoned with the words "Team Babul" in honor of assistant coach Mike Babul's mother, Joan, who is battling this dreaded disease.
In posting their second consecutive victory, which came on the heels of
Thursday night's 75-64 win over Sacred Heart, the Green & White have now won five of their last seven games in improving to 6-4 in Northeast Conference (NEC) play and 8-13 overall. With the loss, the Blue Devils fall to 1-9 in league and are now 3-20 on the season.
The 6-0 Burton became the 42
nd member of the Wagner 1,000-point club when he drained a three-pointer with 2:46 left to play, which ballooned the Seahawk lead to 30 at 78-48, while drawing a loud ovation from the hometown faithful in the process.
Burton, who continues to lead the NEC in both overall (18.7) and NEC scoring (22.7) average, needs 15 points to move into the 41
st spot on the all-time scoring list which is currently held by Marty Ansa, Jr. (1960-1963), who tallied 1,014 points during his Seahawk career. In addition, his five rebounds allowed him to break the 200-mark in this category as he now has 203 career boards to his credit.
Wagner placed four players in double figures, as junior forward
Mike Aaman (Hazlet, NJ/Raritan/Rhode Island) added 13 points, to go with eight rebounds, while the tandem of
Romone Saunders (Temple Hills, MD/Mt. Zion Prep) and
Corey Henson (Upper Marlboro, MD/DeMatha Catholic), a pair of 6-3 freshmen, finished with 11 points apiece.
Freshman guard
JoJo Cooper (Wilmington, DE/Concord) played a solid and efficient floor game, chipping in with nine points, while dishing out a game-high six assists, without committing a single turnover in 25 minutes of action.
In addition to Aaman, sophomore forward
Greg Senat (Elmont. NY/Elmont/Marianapolis Prep-CT) and senior forward
Hugo Naurais (Nimes, France/Elan Chalon) made their presence felt on the glass, grabbing nine and six rebounds, respectively. Central Connecticut was led by Faronte Drakeford's 26-point effort, while Matt Mobley was the only other Blue Devil to hit for double figures, winding up with 10.
The Seahawks opened the contest on a 23-8 run over the first nine minutes of the contest, a stretch that saw the Green & White shoot 50.0 percent from the field (9-of-18) and Central Connecticut was held to just 4-of-10 shooting. The Blue Devils went on a modest 7-2 spurt of their own to cut the deficit to 10 at 25-15, capped by a Matt Mobley old-fashioned three-point play.
The Seahawks the closed out the opening stanza by outscoring the Blue Devils, 18-10 in building a 43-25 halftime bulge. Central Connecticut opened the second half with four straught points before Wagner took complete control of the half, outscoring the visitors, 43-26 the rest of the way.
Wagner matched its highest output in a first half this season in galloping out to its 43-25 halftime lead. Back on December 6, the Seahawks hit for 43 in the opening half of a game they would eventually drop by a 97-84 count at Lafayette.
The 31-point victory is the largest margin of victory against a Division I and Northeast Conference (NEC) opponent this season, and the most by Wagner, since December 3. 2011 when the Seahawks recorded a 40-point, 90-50 victory, at the Spiro Sports Center over St. Francis Brooklyn.
The Green & White finished the game shooting 41.3 percent from the floor despite connecting on just 24.0 percent from beyond the arc. The Seahawks' defense didn't allow the Blue Devils to find their rhythm from the perimeter, as the Blue Devils finished 0-of-6 from three-point range, the first time they were held without a made three-pointer in 557 games (February 29, 1996 at UMKC).
The Seahawks will look for their first three-game win streak of the season when they travel to Sacred Heart on Thursday, February 5.
Notes:- At halftime, members of the Wagner Men's Basketball Hall of Fame were recognized for their contributions to the program
Follow Wagner Athletics on Twitter (@wagnerathletics) for all the latest news and updates on the athletic department and on the men's basketball program and head coach Bashir Mason (@BashirMason) for news on the third-year head coach.
