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Emmitsburg, MD – The Wagner men's basketball team fought valiantly in coming back from a 15-point halftime deficit but couldn't hang on in the closing seconds as the Seahawks were defeated by the Mount St. Mary's Mountaineers, 57-56, at Knott Arena on Saturday afternoon.

With the loss, the Seahawks fall to 5-7 on the season, 1-1 in the NEC while the Mount improves to 3-11 overall but a perfect 2-0 in league play.

Junior guard Corey Henson (Upper Marlboro, MD/DeMatha Catholic) led the way for the visitors, scoring a team-best 13 points on 6-of-8 shooting from the field in 31 minutes of play.  Freshman guard Blake Francis (Herndon, VA/Westfield) scored all 11 of his points in the second half, which included 3-of-4 shooting from long range.  Senior guard Michael Carey (Nassau, Bahamas/Lamar Consolidated [San Jacinto College] chipped in ten points while grabbing a team-leading eight rebounds. 

The Mount also had three players score in double-figures, led by Miles Wilson, who poured in 13 points. Elijah Long scored 12 points while  Junior Robinson netted ten points while Chris Wray scored eight and grabbed a game-high ten caroms. 

The Seahawks staged a late run that was capped by a three-point basket by Francis, giving Wagner a 56-55 lead with 44 seconds left in the game. The Mount answered with a pair of clutch free throws by Elijah Long at the 28-second mark to put the Mountaineers back in front at 57-56.

The Green & White used their final timeout with 24 seconds remaining. When play resumed, the Seahawks worked the ball around the perimeter before finding redshirt senior forward Mike Aaman (Hazlet, NJ / Raritan / Rhode Island) inside. The lefthander missed a layup in traffic with nine seconds showing on the clock.  Following a loose ball scramble, possession was awarded to Wagner.

Following a Mount timeout, Henson took the inbounds pass from fellow junior guard JoJo Cooper (Wilmington, DE / Concord) and drove down the left side of the lane but his potential game-winning layup with 1.7 seconds left was blocked away by Wray as the Mount held on for the hard-fought win.

Trailing 31-16 following a defensive-minded first half, the Seahawks still found themselves behind in the contest by nine, 44-35 with 10:40 to go in regulation. The Green & White ignited a 21-9 run that was capped by the Francis three-pointer with less than a minute to play, giving the Seahawks their first lead since the midway point of the opening half.  During the Seahawks' run,  the visitors were 9-of-12 from the field and 2-of-2 from the outside while holding Mount to just 4-of-12 shooting and 1-of-7 from beyond-the-arc. 

"When you dig yourself that deep of a hole, it's tough to dig your way out of it but give my guys credit," said Seahawks' fifth-year head coach Bashir Mason. "We fought back, we played hard, I just the thought the way the game started was difficult for us. I'm proud of our guys for having that next play mentality and just sticking with it. A tough conference game and this is what it's going to be like every night, so hopefully, this is a learning experience for us."

"All of our guys, I thought, played hard and gave great effort, something that a coach can be proud of, especially because that's they way we practice ever day," he continued. "Down the stretch, Blake (Francis) stepped up and made a bunch of different plays, a bunch of shots for us. I'm super proud of him for those moments, and as we continue to progress, he's going to be a real good player, a real special player for us. We have good depth, and I feel real comfortable with all of our guys. This was a hard-fought battle today, and for us to come back and show that type of toughness, that's the kind of team I can coach every day of the week."

After shooting under 30.0 percent in the first half, the Seahawks shot a blistering 57.1 percent from the floor in the second to finish the game at 43.0 percent. 34 of the 56 Seahawks points came from inside the paint with Aaman scoring nine of those points. Wagner held a 39-35 edge on the boards. 

Wagner will turn its attention to the heavily anticipated rematch of last season's NEC Championship game as the Seahawks host the defending league champions, the Fairleigh Dickinson University Knights, on Thursday, January 5, 2017 at 9:00 p.m on CBS Sports Network 

NOTE: Today's game began in unique fashion when Mount St. Mary's was assessed an administrative technical foul due to a light bulb that was blown out on the shot clock. Henson took the one-shot technical foul and missed.

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