Pictured Above: Redshirt junior guard Romone Saunders (photo by Gabriel Rhodes)

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Hackensack, NJ – The first-place Wagner men's basketball team rallied from a 20-point deficit to make it a four-point game on three separate occasions in the game's final five minutes but Fairleigh Dickinson was able to hang for a 76-69 Northeast Conference (NEC) win on Sunday at Stratis Arena in a game that was televised nationally on CBS Sports Network.
 
In seeing their seven-game winning streak come to an end, the Seahawks fall to 18-7 overall, 11-3 in the NEC while the surging Knights, who led most of the way today, win their third straight in improving to 10-15 overall and 7-7 in league play.
 
The Green & White had a chance to extend its lead atop the NEC standings to three games. Instead, Wagner now has a two-game lead over second-place Mount St. Mary's (9-5) with just four regular season games remaining. Four teams – Saint Francis U, Robert Morris, LIU Brooklyn, and St. Francis Brooklyn - are tied for third place with matching 8-6 NEC records.
 
Redshirt junior guard Romone Saunders led all scorers with 25 points, while sophomore guard Blake Francis and junior wing Elijah Davis added 16 and 11 points, respectively. Redshirt junior forward AJ Sumbry chipped in with seven points, to go with a game-high 10 rebounds.
 
Senior guard JoJo Cooper, despite finishing with just four points, made his presence felt by dishing out a game-high eight assists along with eight rebounds and three steals.
 
After FDU raced out to a 33-18 halftime lead, the Knights opened the second half on a 7-2 spurt in building their biggest lead of the game, a 20-point cushion at 40-20 with 17:52 remaining in the game.
 
The teams alternated buckets on their next four possessions, which again put FDU up by 20, at 44-24, with 15:55 left.
 
Davis jump-started a quick 9-0 Seahawk run over the next 1:40 with a three-point jumper off a feed from Cooper. Following a Saunders layup which made it 44-29 with 14:50 left, Francis sank a pair of free throws before Davis capped the run with a layup off another Cooper feed which made it an 11-point game at 44-33 with 14:15 left. Steals by Davis and Cooper helped key the Wagner spurt.
 
The Knights were still in control when Jahlil Jenkins drained a three at the 7:24 mark to push the lead back to 11 at 62-51 but the Seahawks then got hot from deep, ripping off three consecutive three-pointers of their own, during a 9-2 run. Saunders knocked down the first trey to make it 62-54. After a Mike Holloway, Jr. jumper gave FDU its last double-digit lead of the game, at 64-54, Francis drained back-to-back three-pointers, the latter with 4:48 left, which made it a four-point game at 64-60.
 
After a 4-0 FDU spurt pushed the Knights' lead back to eight at 68-60, Wagner answered with four straight when senior guard Shack Scott went 1-of-2 from the line with 2:14 left, followed by another Saunders three at the 1:47 mark that made it a 68-64 game.
 
FDU then made three straight from the free throw line to push its lead back to seven at 71-64, but the Seahawks weren't done, as Saunders knocked down yet another three, with 1:06 left, Wagner clawed to within four points for the third time at 71-67.
 
Following Saunders' three, the Seahawks quickly called time out with 1:04 left. After Sumbry picked up his fifth foul at the 40-second mark, the Seahawks caught a break when the Holloway missed both free throws. The Green & White, however, were unable to capitalize as Francis' three-point try was off the mark with 32 seconds left.
 
The Knights then sealed the win by sinking three of their final four free throws.
 
Holloway, FDU's burly inside force, paced the Knights with 23 points to lead four players in double figures.  Darnell Edge finished with 22 points while Jenkins and Noah Morgan added 15 and 11 points, respectively.
 
The Seahawks and Knights both struggled to find their rhythm early in this contest as the teams combined to start 2-of-10 from the field combined the Knights clinging to a 4-3 lead at the under-16 media timeout.
 
Following the timeout, FDU embarked on an 8-0 run over the next 2:37 in taking a 12-3 lead before Saunders was able to stop the run on a layup at the 13:20 mark. Wagner was held to just 1-of-6 shooting over this span while the Knights converted on 4-of-6 chances with Holloway Jr. serving as the catalyst with six points, all coming from the low-block.
 
Wagner answered back with a 7-2 run over a 4:29 stretch to cut the lead to 14-10 before Jenkins was able to convert on a jumper to put FDU back up six, 16-10. The Green & White was able to cut it back down to four, 18-14, at the 7:42 mark as Cooper found a cutting Sumbry, who threw down a monster two-hand slam.
 
The Knights responded with a 9-0 run of its own, holding Wagner to 0-of-5 from the field during the 3:18 stretch in increasing their lead to 27-14 at the under-four media timeout.  Fairleigh Dickinson took a 15-point lead into intermission after scoring six of the final ten points in the half in taking a 33-18 lead.
 
The 18 first-half points for the Seahawks were a season low and the lowest first-half output since December 23 when the Seahawks scored 21 at Dayton. The Seahawks were held to just 18.9 percent shooting from the field in the opening half while not connecting on a three-pointer in the opening half (0-of-9).
 
Saunders led the way with eight points while the Knights, who shot a blistering 51.7 percent from the field, got 15 points from Holloway Jr., who converted on 7-of-11 from the field to go along with six rebounds in the opening frame. 
 
Wagner closes out its mini-two-game road trip on Thursday, February 15 when the Seahawks travel to Fairfield, CT to take on the Sacred Heart. Tipoff between the Seahawks and the Pioneers from the William H. Pitt Center is scheduled for 6:00 p.m. and will be streamed on NEC Front Row. 

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