Pictured Above: Junior Devin Liggeons (photo by Dave Saffran)
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Staten Island, NY – Redshirt junior guard
Romone Saunders scored 17 points to lead three Seahawks in double figures, but it wasn't enough to offset LIU Brooklyn, which rode a 32-point effort from Joel Hernandez to a 71-61 win over Wagner in the 2018 Northeast Conference (NEC) Championship game on Wednesday night in front of a spirited Spiro Sports Center sellout crowd of 2,330 fans, along with a national audience tuned in on ESPN2.
With the loss, the Green & White saw their home winning streak come to an end, as Wagner entered the game with the nation's second-longest at 16 consecutive games. The Seahawks, who fall to 23-9 on the season, now wait to find out the identity of their first-round opponent in in the opening round of the National Invitational Tournament (NIT) as Wagner, by virtue of winning the NEC regular season title, gain automatic entry into the NIT.
LIU Brooklyn will represent the NEC in the NCAA Tournament and will enter the Big Dance with a record of 18-16. At the conclusion of the NEC Tournament, the league announced its five-member All-Tournament Team, led by Hernandez, who was tabbed tournament MVP. LIU Brooklyn was also represented by Raiquan Clark. The Seahawks had two players on the team in
Romone Saunders and
JoJo Cooper. Fairleigh Dickinson's Kaleb Bishop rounded out the five-member team.
The Seahawks were unable to find their shooting touch all night, as they wound up a season-low 30.0 percent from the floor. Their previous lowest shooting night was at Missouri (11/13) when the Green & White were 32.7 percent. In NEC play this season, Wagner's lowest shooting game was at Mount St. Mary's (2/24) when the Seahawks hit for 34.2 percent.
Wagner was particularly, and uncharacteristically, cold from long range tonight as the Green & White connected on just six off 33 attempts from the beyond the arc (18.2 percent).
"Not the outcome that we wanted," said Wagner head coach
Bashir Mason, who was named the Jim Phelan Northeast Conference (NEC) Coach of the Year for the second time in his six-year career. "You know, it was just a night where we couldn't throw the ball in the ocean. I thought my guys battled and thought they played extremely hard and they were dialed into the game plan, but you have to give LIU (Brooklyn) a lot of credit.
"Those guys, they prepared," Mason added "Their two best players really stepped up big time for those guys. It is a tough pill to swallow but I told my guys this is something that is going to make them better. We will learn from this, well grow and get better from this moment."
With Wagner trailing by a 14-12 count following a layup by junior guard
Devin Liggeons at the 8:29 mark of the first half, the Blackbirds went to close the half by outscoring the Seahawks 20-6 in building a 34-18 halftime cushion.
While the Seahawks were able to make it a single-digit game through most of the second half, they could never get closer than seven points.
In addition to Saunders' 17-point effort, Liggeons recoded a double-double, scoring 14 points on 5-of-10 shooting while grabbing 11 rebounds in a productive and efficient 26-minute stint. Wagner's third double-digit scorer on this night was senior guard
JoJo Cooper who added 11 points, to go with a game-high eight assists and six rebounds.
Wagner's leading scorer, sophomore guard
Blake Francis, had a tough 3-for-17 shooting night to finish with eight points while redshirt junior forward
AJ Sumbry added seven points, along with six rebounds.
For the Blackbirds, Raiquan Clark hit for 20 points as he and Hernandez combined for 52 of LIU Brooklyn's 71 points in the night. The Blackbirds were a hot 53.3 percent shooting for the game and held the edge in points in the pait by a 34-30 margin. Wagner held the edge in points off turnovers and second-chance points.
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