Staten Island, NY -  In what has been a called a "rivalry", the third-seeded Wagner Seahawks (15-13, 11-7 NEC) will look for some retribution as they host the No. 6 seed and defending league champions, the Fairleigh Dickinson University Knights on Wednesday evening from the Spiro Sports Center.

NEC TOURNAMENT TIDBITS:

Carey Tabbed To First Team; Henson Named To Second Team: On the eve of the 2017 Northeast Conference (NEC) Tournament, which for the No. 3 seed Wagner men's basketball team kicks off Wednesday night vs. No. 6 seed Fairleigh Dickinson, senior guard Michael Carey (Nassau, Bahamas/Lamar Consolidated [San Jacinto College]) was named to All-NEC First Team while junior guard Corey Henson (Upper Marlboro, MD/DeMatha Catholic) earned All-NEC Second Team honors. An All-NEC Second Teamer a season ago, the 6-5 Carey continued his consistent approach to the game in his second season as a Seahawk, while leading the conference in rebounds. Carey had ten double-doubles for the 2016-17, one of four NEC players to register 10 or more double-doubles this season. Since 1997-98, Carey is just the sixth Seahawk to record ten or more double-double performance. Additionally, he is the fourth player in program history to record 20 double-doubles or more for a career, as he enters the NEC Tournament with 25, which only trails former Seahawks For the second straight season, Henson garnered Second Team honors, the first Seahawk repeat as an All-NEC player since former Seahawk great, Kenneth Ortiz ('14), who was named to back-to-back Third Team squads. The Upper Marlboro product upped his scoring production, finishing among the top-ten in the league at 14.3 ppg. An excellent free-throw shooter, ranking in the league's top-five at 81.2 percent, Henson became the 43rd member of the Wagner Men's Basketball 1,000-Point Club on February 4, recording the milestone basket on a runner in the lane over two Fairleigh Dickinson defenders that broke a 2-2 tie. The third-year Seahawk currently stands in 32nd place with 1,111 career points. While leading the team in scoring this season for the second straight year, Henson had 22 games in which he scored in double-digits, which gives him 57 for his three-year career.Durell Vinson ('08), who finished with 28 and Nigel Wyatte ('04), who notched 26. 

Last Time Out For Wagner: Junior guard Corey Henson (Upper Marlboro, MD / DeMatha Catholic) tied his career high with 25 points and senior guard Michael Carery (Nassau, Bahamas / Lamar Consolidated / San Jacinto) added 24 points but LIU Brooklyn was able to escape with an 88-84 overtime win in the regular season finale on Saturday afternoon in front of a loud crowd of 1,382 at the Spiro Sports Center. Newly minted NEC Player of the Year Jerome Frink had 24 points and 11 rebounds to lead four players in double figures for LIU. Iverson Fleming finished with 23 points while Jashaun Agosto and Raiquan Clark added 12 apiece, with Clark also grabbing a game-high 12 rebounds in becoming the second Blackbird to finish with a double-double.  

All-Time Series:  Wednesday's quarterfinal matchup between the Seahawks and the Knights is the 106th all-time meeting with Wagner holding a slim 53-52 edge in the head-to-head series.  In Northeast Conference (NEC) Tournament play, the Green & White last earned a win back on March 2, 1994, a 90-81 victory when the Seahawks were the No. 4 seed and the Knights were the No. 5 seed.  

Last Time Out Against Fairleigh Dickinson (2/4/17):  With four players in double figures, the Wagner men's basketball team picked up its third straight win, defeating defending Northeast Conference (NEC) champion Fairleigh Dickinson, 68-59, on February 4 in a game that was televised nationally on ESPNU. Henson led all scorers with a game-best 16 points on 3-of-9 shooting from the field but was a perfect 8-of-8 from the free throw line. Additionally, the third-year Seahawk, who entered the day with 999 career points, became the 43rd member of the 1,000 point club. 

Scouting The Fairleigh Dickinson University Knights: The Fairleigh Dickinson University Knights finished the regular season at 11-18 and 9-9 in league play after jumping out to an 8-1 mark in league tilts. However, the team went 1-8 in the second half of the conference, which included a defeat in the season finale at Saint Francis U, 70-64, despite having four players score in double-figures, led by Darnell Edge's team-best 19 points. The Knights and Seahawks are meeting in the Tournament for the ninth time with FDU holding a 7-1 edge. FDU has won three straight games at the Spiro Sports Center. FDU's combo of guards Darian Anderson and Stephen Jiggetts, who were named to the All-NEC Second Team and Third Team, respectively, will anchor the defending league champions. Anderson led the NEC in steals per game while Jiggetts was the circuit's leading assist man much of the year.  Anderson is the team's top scorer at 16.9 ppg and shooting 41.5 percent from the field. He is also a 81.8 percent free-throw shooter while pulling down 3.6 caroms a game and distributing 3.2 assists per game.
Jiggetts has poured in 13.2 ppg while converting 81.5 percent from the charity stripe. His 123 assists led the squad and finished  second among his NEC counterparts at 4.24 apg. For the year, the Knights were top free-throw shooting team in the league at 76.5 percent.  

February Frenzy: The Seahawks are 6-2 in the month of February. Under head coach Bashir Mason, the Green & White are 25-14 in the final month of the regular season.

Not a Sprint; A Marathon To The Finish: At the halfway point of the 2016-17 Northeast Conference (NEC) schedule, the Seahawks were just 4-5 in league games, scoring 65.9 ppg while shooting 43.1 percent from the field, 30.3 percent from beyond-the-arc and 69.5 percent from the free throw line. Corey Henson, Michael Carey and Mike Aaman were all scoring in double-digits, led by Henson's 14.7 ppg, followed by Carey's 14.1 and Aaman's 10.6. Carey was pulling down 10.0 rpg during this stretch while shooting 51.0 percent from the field.  The Seahawks surged in the second half of conference play, posting a 7-2 record while scoring 69.2 ppg and outrebounding their opponents, by nearly 5.0 rebounds a game. Henson led the way scoring nearly 15.0 ppg while Carey chipped in 13.2 ppg and 9.2 rebounds a contest.