Pictured Above: Junior guard Corey Henson became the 43rd member of the Wagner 1,000-point club as he tallied game-high 16 points (Photo Courtesy: Larry Levanti)

Box Score (PDF) | Box Score (HTML)
 

Hackensack, NJ - 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 Saturday morning in a game that was televised nationally on ESPNU.

With the win, the Seahawks even their overall record at 11-11 while improving to 7-5 in league play. The victory also splits the season series between the Seahawks and Knights. Fairleigh Dickinson falls to 10-13 overall and 8-4 in conference play.

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. The Upper Marlboro, MD native posted his 51st career double-figure game and 16th of the year.

Senior guard Michael Carey (Nassau, Bahamas/Lamar Consolidated [San Jacinto College) netted 15 points on 4-of-8 shooting while converting on 7-of-10 from the line.  Junior guard JoJo Cooper (Wilmington, DE/Concord) filled up the statsheet, scoring 13 points, grabbing five rebounds, dishing out a team-best six assists while adding three steals. Redshirt senior forward Mike Aaman (Hazlet, NJ/Raritan [University of Rhode Island]) chipped in 11 points and six caroms in his 29 minutes of action. 

Fairleigh Dickinson had three players in double digits, led by Stephan Jiggetts' team-best 13 points on 3-of-16 shooting. Earl Potts Jr. and Darian Anderson each finished with 10 points on a combined 5-of-17. Potts Jr. grabbed a team-high nine rebounds in the loss.

The first half was a prototypical, defensive-minded affair with both teams shooting under 40.0 percent shooting from the field overall and under 20.0 percent from long range. At the 17:34 mark of the first half, Henson recorded the milestone bucket on a runner in the lane over two FDU defenders that broke a 2-2 tie. Wagner took its largest lead of the stanza at 11-4 when Henson dialed up a corner three-pointer off the feed from fellow junior guard JoJo Cooper (Wilmington, DE/Concord).

FDU responded with an 11-3 run to take its first lead of the game at 15-14 as the Knights went 4-of-9 shooting from the field while holding the visitors to just 1-of-5 shooting during this stretch. A 7-2 spurt from the Seahawks gave them a four-point lead, 21-17, as Cooper was able to bank home a one-handed layup. The Knights closed out the frame on a mini 6-2 run as Malik Miller's tip-in with 41 seconds tied the game at 23 heading into intermission.

FDU opened the second half of play with back-to-back three-pointers from Edge and Potts Jr. that extended the Knights lead to 29-23. Wagner answered back with an 8-2 run to tie the game at 31 after Aaman was able to back down his defender en route to the left-handed score. FDU regained the lead, scoring seven of the next ten points over a three-minute stretch in taking a 38-34 lead. Jiggetts added a double pump, long two-pointer, giving FDU a 40-36 before Ferrell answered by completing a traditional three-point play from the line in closing the gap to three, 40-37 with 11:55 left in regulation. 

The Seahawks then turned up the intensity on both ends of the floor, showing why they lead the conference in field goal percentage defense as they held FDU to just 4-of-18 and 1-of-6 from beyond-the-arc over the final 11:36 as the Green & White closed the game by outscoring the Knights, 31-19 en route to the 68-59 victory. Down the stretch, Wagner was an efficient 50.0 percent from the floor while connecting on 15-of-18 from the line and held the Knights to just two made field goals over the final two minutes. Both teams pulled down 37 rebounds in the game while the Seahawks scored 28 of its 68 points in the paint.

Wagner will be in action on Thursday, February 9 as the Seahawks head to Western Pennsylvania to tangle with the Saint Francis U Red Flash on Thursday night in a game that will televised on MSG+, FCS and ROOT+

Follow us: #CHAOSonthehill
Wagner Athletics       
Men's Basketball:  
Head Coach Bashir Mason: 
Wagner Gameday: