Staten Island, NY -  Winners of six of the last seven contests, the Wagner men's basketball team gears up for the final two regular season games this week, beginning on Thursday night when the Seahawks welcome the Bryant University Bulldogs to Staten Island and the Spiro Sports Center. The Seahawks earned their tenth Northeast Conference (NEC) victory of the year last time out in taking the season series from the St. Francis Brooklyn Terriers, 73-55, on Saturday. Newly-minted NEC Co-Rookie of the Week, freshman guard Blake Francis, went 3-of-5 from beyond-the-arc and finished with a team and game-high 17 points.  Bryant, which has won three straight, picked up a 79-75 victory over Saint Francis U on Saturday as three Bulldogs finished in double digits, led by Adam Grant's team-high 18 points. NEC-leading scorer, Nisre Zouzoua, chipped in with 13 points and four blocks while Dan Garvin came off the bench to score 12 points and grabbed six rebounds in the win. 

Last Time Out For Wagner: Wagner freshman guard Blake Francis (Herndon, VA / Westfield) tossed in 17 points, leading four players in doubles figures as the Seahawks recorded a 73-55 Northeast Conference (NEC) victory over St. Francis Brooklyn at the Pope Physical Education Center on Saturday afternoon. Francis' 17-point effort, which followed his career-high 20-point outing in Thursday's 69-64 victory over Mount St. Mary's, came on 6-of-9 shooting and included 3-of-5 marksmanship from three-point range. Junior guard Corey Henson (Upper Marlboro, MD / DeMatha Catholic) added 15 points, while fellow junior guard JoJo Cooper (Wilmington, DE / Concord) tallied 12 of his 14 points in the first half. Redshirt senior forward Mike Aaman (Hazlet, NJ / Raritan / Rhode Island) added 11 points and eight rebounds. Wagner received a welcomed burst of energy off the bench from sophomore guard Devin Liggeons (Philadelphia, PA / Imhotep Charter) who pulled down a career-high 12 rebounds to go with his six-point outing. Staten Island native Glenn Sanabria was the lone Terrier to reach double figures, finishing with 12 points, as Wagner's smothering defense held St. Francis to 31.6 percent shooting. Robert Montgomery added eight points for St. Francis, while Rasheem Dunn and Jahmel Bodrick chipped in with seven apiece.

All-Time Series: Thursday's contest is the 14th all-time meeting between the two schools with Wagner holding an 8-5 edge in the head-to-head series. The Seahawks are 4-2 all-time at the Spiro Sports Center against the Bulldogs, last picking up a 65-56 win back on January 7, 2016. Wagner will look to avoid being swept by Bryant for the first time since the 2014-15 season when the Bulldogs defeated Wagner, 81-73 in Smithfield, RI on January 15 and 66-65 on February 19 at the Spiro Sports Center. 

The Coaches: Wagner's Bashir Mason, the 2015-16 Jim Phelan NEC Coach of the Year, is in his fifth season as the head coach of the Wagner Seahawks, owning a career record of 85-67 and a conference record of 55-31. Mason is 4-4 all-time against the Bulldogs. Bryant's Tim O'Shea, in his ninth season at Bryant and 16th overall year on the sidelines, enters Thursday's contest with a career mark of 214-272 and is 94-177 in his nine years at Bryant. The veteran head coach holds a 55-82 conference record and is 5-8 all-time against the Seahawks. 

Last Time Out Against Bryant (1/12/17):  Senior guard Michael Carey (Nassau, Bahamas/Lamar Consolidated [San Jacinto College]) finished with a game-high 20 points and 12 rebounds but it was not enough as the Seahawks fell to Bryant, 77-66, in Smithfield, RI at the Chace Athletic Center. Junior guard Corey Henson (Upper Marlboro, MD/DeMatha Catholic) was the only other Seahawk to score in double figures, as he ended up with 15 points in 34 minutes of play. Four Bulldogs finished in double figures, led by Nisre Zouzoua, who led all scorers with 24 points on 7-of-15 shooting while going 8-of-9 from the free throw line. Bosko Kostur added 15 points and a team-best eight rebounds in 37 minutes of play while Marcel Pettway and Adam Grant chipped in with 14 and ten points, respectively.

Scouting The Bryant University Bulldogs: The Bulldogs, who are currently tied for sixth in the NEC standings with Sacred Heart, have clinched an NEC-tournament berth and enter play with the Seahawks at 11-18; 8-8 in the league. Bryant is riding a three-game win streak after picking up a 79-75 home victory over the Saint Francis U Red Flash.  In that contest, three Bulldogs finished in double-figures, led by Adam Grant's team-high 18 points, in which he converted 6-of-10 from the field and 4-of-7 from the outside. Nisre Zouzoua, who is the current NEC-leader in scoring at 19.8 ppg, poured in 13 points and added a game-best four rejections. Dan Garvin added 12 points, six rebounds and two blocks in 25 minutes in reserve. On the year, the Bulldogs are the second-highest scoring team in the league at 73.7 ppg despite ranking tenth in scoring defense at 77.0 ppg. Bryant is second in the circuit at 71.9 percent from the free-throw line while ranking fifth in field-goal percentage (43.8%) and field-goal percentage defense (44.7%).

Francis Tabbed NEC Co-Rookie of the Week: The Northeast Conference (NEC) announced on Monday afternoon that Wagner men's basketball freshman Blake Francis (Herndon, VA/Westfield) was named Co-Rookie of the Week. For Francis, it is his first league citation, and he becomes the first Seahawk to garner the weekly honor since current teammate, JoJo Cooper (Wilmington, DE/Concord) claimed the honor for the week of December 1, 2014. Francis has been one of the NEC's top three-point shooters all season and was lights out in the Seahawks' 2-0 week. Coming off the bench, he netted 37 points on just 14 shots, shooting 71.4 percent from the field and 70.0 percent from downtown. The Herndon, VA native averaged a team-high 18.5 ppg for the Seahawks, who have won six of its last seven games and sits alone in third place with a 10-6 league record. Francis hit 4-of-5 from long range and 8-of-9 from the charity stripe for a career-high 20 points in Thursday's 69-65 win over first place, Mount St. Mary's.  He converted six straight freebies in the final 33 seconds to seal the victory. On Saturday, Francis made 3-of-5 from beyond-the-arc and finished with a team and game-high 17 points in the Green & White's 73-55 victory over St. Francis Brooklyn. Currently, the sharp-shooting left-hander ranks second in the NEC in three-point accuracy (45.2 percent) while tallying 7.5 ppg.

Down The Stretch They Come: With the final week of regular season play upon us, the NEC Tournament field is set, but there still is plenty of drama left to unfold as teams make their final seeding push. With parity reigning supreme, here is the skinny on who is in, who is trending upward, and who controls their own destiny in their quest to host a quarterfinal game: These eight teams have qualified for the 2017 NEC Tournament. Here's a look at the qualification streaks for each of the eight, highlighted by RMU's league-best 14 consecutive appearances.  

Consecutive NEC Tournament Appearances (Current)
14 - Robert Morris
7 - WAGNER
5 - Mount St. Mary's
4 - Saint Francis U
3 - LIU Brooklyn, Sacred Heart
2 - Fairleigh Dickinson
1 - Bryant

Title Chase: Mount St. Mary's has clinched at least a share of the NEC regular season title, but left the door ajar for LIU Brooklyn to challenge for the top seed. The Mount fell at Wagner on Thursday, before cutting its magic number to clinch the top seed to one with a 79-74 win at Fairleigh Dickinson on Saturday. At 13-3, the Mount holds a two-game lead over LIU, which has won four straight games heading into play this week. The two teams meet on Thursday at Knott Arena, and a Blackbird win would set up an interesting final day of the regular season. LIU plays at Wagner in another matchup of contenders on Saturday, while the Mount hosts St. Francis Brooklyn. Should the two teams finish tied, LIU could snag the top seed if Wagner finishes alone in third place or if other tiebreakers fall into place.  

Seeding Picture Still Muddled (aka "Break Out The Tiebreakers"): With just one week remaining in the regular season, the tightly-knit NEC standings make it difficult to project the eventual matchups that will comprise the league's postseason tournament which begins with quarterfinal round play on Wednesday, March 1.   What we do know is that Mount St. Mary's and LIU Brooklyn have clinched home playoff games. Wagner needs one more win to guarantee a game at the Spiro Center. Fairleigh Dickinson, Saint Francis U, Bryant and Sacred Heart are also in play for a top-four seed. Robert Morris cannot host a tourney game. It should be noted that Bryant and Sacred Heart, who are tied for sixth, are two of the NEC's hottest teams at this point. The Bulldogs have won three straight, while the Pioneers have taken five of their last six with the lone setback coming on a one-point loss at second place LIU Brooklyn on Saturday.

Controlling The Glass: Wagner has outrebounded its opponents in 20 of 26 games this season. The Green & White ranks 10th in the entire NCAA in rebounding margin at 7.6.  Against local rival, Staten Island (12/22), the Green & White outmuscled the Dolphins by a staggering 32, 58-26 in its 52-point victory (94-42).  Three times this season, the Seahawks and their opponents grabbed the same amount of boards, most recently at Fairleigh Dickinson (2/4/17) (37).  The other two times: Nov. 30 @ UMass (31) and against Sacred Heart (1/7/17) (37). Last season, Wagner had outrebounded its opposition by double-figures in 17 games.  The Seahawks rank first in rebounding offense (39.7) and rebounding defense (31.7) and are outmuscling their opponents by +8.0 in the Northeast Conference. 

Seahawks Tale Of Two Halves: In the first half of contests, Wagner is shooting 42.3 percent from the field, 34.3 percent from beyond-the-arc and 65.6 percent from the free-throw line while holding a +4.3 advantage on the boards (20.0-15.8).  In the second half of play, the Seahawks are shooting 43.4 percent from the field, 31.4 percent from three-point range and 70.9 percent from the free-throw line while holding a +3.8 advantage on the boards (19.4-15.6).

Paint Production: Wagner has scored 750 of its 1752 total points from inside the paint, coming out to 43.0 percent of its total scoring.  Twice this season, the Seahawks scored 40 points in the paint at Bryant (1/12/17), matching the production set on the road at American (11/22).  For the 13th time this year, Wagner has scored at least 30 or more points from downlow and in seven of those eight contests have outscored their opponents, the last coming at Central Connecticut Blue Devils (2/2/17), 30-24. 

Getting A Second Chance: The Seahawks are thriving off second chance opportunities. For the season, Wagner is averaging 13.5 points off second chances while their opponents are tallying 9.2 points (352-239).

In The Final Five: In the final five minutes of the game, Wagner is shooting 45.2 percent from the field and 34.4 percent from three-point land while connecting on 71.2 percent from the free-throw line. 

At The Half...: When leading at the half under fifth-year Bashir Mason, the Seahawks have posted an overall record of 63-13. This season, the Green & White have entered the intermission with the lead in 17 of the 26 games (10-7 record in these games.)