Staten Island, NY - The Wagner men's basketball fell to the Fairfield University Stags, 70-64, in overtime in the Seahawks' home opener on Saturday afternoon.

With the loss, Wagner falls to 1-2 on the young season while Fairfield remains unbeaten at 3-0. 

Senior guard Michael Carey (Nassau, Bahamas/Lamar Consolidated [San Jacinto College]) was one of three Seahawks in double-figures as he finished with a season-high 21 points while grabbing eight rebounds. Freshman guard Blake Francis (Herndon, VA/Westfield) came off the bench, contributing a career-high 14 points, while junior guard JoJo Cooper (Wilmington, DE/Concord), making his first start of the season, posted his second career double-double, finishing the game with 13 points and ten rebounds. The third-year Seahawk narrowly recorded a triple-double, as he dished out a game-high eight assists in 44 minutes of action.  

Fairfield also had three players reach double-figures, led by Tyler Nelson's game-high 23 points on 6-17 shooting, which included a game-best 10-of-11 from the charity stripe. Curtis Cobb and Matija Milin added 14 and 11 points, respectively. 

Wagner overcame an early 24-16 deficit by embarking on a mammoth 19-0 run, spanning nearly 6:30 to take a 35-24 lead as freshman Connor Ferrell (Conyers, GA/Rockdale County (DME Sports Academy) connected on a corner three-pointer for his first collegiate points.  Fairfield's Jerome Segura launched a three-pointer with just three seconds left in the first half as the Seahawks entered the break with a 37-29 edge. The Wagner 19-0 run came largely via the three-ball as Wagner drained four treys in the burst while holding the Stags without a made field goal and causing four turnovers. 

The Seahawks remained in control for much of the second half, scoring 12 of the first 21 points in the frame, as Francis spearheaded the offense with eight points, the final two coming on a pair of free-throws at the 9:12 mark, as Wagner led 51-41. Fairfield used an 18-8 spark over nine minutes to tie the game. Following Carey's old-fashioned three-point play conversion, bumping Wagner's lead to 59-56 with 1:08 left in regulation, Fairfield rebounded a missed trifecta by Francis with thirty seconds remaining.  The Stags were able to move the ball around before Cobb received the feed from Segura and buried a high-arching three-pointer, tying the game at 59. 

Fairfield scored nine of its 11 points in the overtime frame from the free-throw line, with the lone made field goal coming off a Nelson layup with 4:15 showing on the clock. The visitors next scoring chances came off consecutive 1-of-2 efforts from the line by Milin to make it a 64-59 game. Wagner got within two, at 66-64, as Cooper dialed up a left-wing three, but the Stags closed the game out with four straight free-throws in the final 47 seconds to escape Staten Island with the six-point win.

The Seahawks will hit the road before the Thanksgiving holiday, as they head to the Nation's Capital (Washington, D.C.) to tangle with American University on November 22. Tipoff is scheduled for 7:30 pm. 

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