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Senior guard Marcus Burton pictured above (Bill Lyons, Staten Island Advance)

Post Game Recap (Staten Island Advance; Cormac Gordon)

Highlights (St. Francis Brooklyn vs. Wagner College)

Staten Island, NY –  The Wagner College men's basketball team couldn't overcome a double-digit lead and fell to Northeast Conference (NEC)-leading St. Francis Brooklyn, 66-51, on Saturday afternoon at the Spiro Sports Center. 

With the loss, the Seahawks are now 6-6 in conference play, tied with LIU Brooklyn, who were victorious today over Saint Francis U. on the road.  Wagner falls to 8-15 overall on the season. The Terriers, who improved to 10-2 in NEC action, are the first team to clinch a spot in the 2015 Northeast Conference Tournament with the victory as they improve to 16-9 overall and are winners of 13 of their last 15 games.  

Senior guard Marcus Burton (Charlotte, NC/David W. Butler), the NEC's leading scorer entering the game in both overall (18.7) and NEC-only scoring average (22.6), was the lone Seahawk in double figures on the afternoon with 13 points.  Junior forward Mike Aaman (Hazlet, NJ/Raritan/Rhode Island) and freshman guard Aaren Edmead (Deer Park, NY/Deer Park) added eight points apiece for the Green & White with the 6-8 Aaman tallying 11 rebounds, the third-time this season he has posted double-digit caroms. 

St. Francis Brooklyn was led by senior forward Jalen Cannon, who was the lone Terrier to post double-figures, as he scored 29 points and grabbed 11 rebounds in the victory.  In addition, Cannon became the NEC's all-time career rebounding leader when at the 5:13 mark he grabbed his fifth rebound of the contest off a Wagner missed three-pointer.  

Wagner opened the contest on a 12-to-6 sprut that was immediately countered with a Terrier 23-to-11 run over an eight-minute stretch that saw the visitors take a 29-23 lead capped by a Tyreek Jewell corner three-pointer with 2:49 left in the first half.  The Seahawks were limited to just three made free-throws and 0-of-2 from the field. In all, the visitors connected for 50.0 percent in the first half, thanks to 16 first-half points from Cannon while holding Wagner to just 8-of-33 (24.2% FG) and 2-of-6 from beyond the arc (33.3%).
 
It was an emotion-filled afternoon on Grymes Hill. At halftime of the men's game, the late Bob Balut, former Wagner Sports Information Director, was honored on his entry into the NEC Hall of Fame, which was announced on Thursday. Members of Balut's family, including his widow Erica (nee Minter), a Seahawk basketball player from 1994-1998, and nine-year old son Aiden, who was 2 ½ years old at the time of his father's death, were in attendance, along with a host of his friends and members of the NEC administration.

When play resumed, Wagner outscored the Terriers by a slim 10-to-8 margin over the first ten minutes of the second half, closing the gap to seven, 43-36, after Edmead converted on a pair of free-throws. St. Francis Brooklyn sparked a 17-to-5 run over the next 6:38, which catapulted the lead to 60-41 with 4:10 left after Antonio Jenifer hit a right-corner three-pointer.  The Seahawks closed the game out on a 10-to-6 run but it wasn't enough to stop the Terriers.

Saturday also marked Play4Kay Day, with all fans wearing pink admitted free of charge, as well as Hall of Fame Alumni Day, as all living Seahawk Hall of Fame members were welcomed back to Grymes Hill for a reception followed by a salute at halftime of the men's game.

The Seahawks are next in action on Thursday, February 12, when they make the short trek across the Verrazzano Bridge to meet these same Terriers in Brooklyn with a tip-off set for 7:00 p.m.

Notes: With his 13-point effort tonight, Burton is now up to 1,035 career points. Moving into 38^th-place on the Seahawk all-time list, just 15 points away from tying Kenneth Ortiz (2011-2014), who is the 37^th spot at 1,050 points.