Moon Township, PA – Coming off a gutsy 83-79 win at Saint Francis U on Thursday night, the Wagner men's basketball team will look for a sweep of its annual western Pennsylvania swing for the second straight season when the Seahawks meet Northeast Conference (NEC)-leading Robert Morris at 5:00 p.m. on Saturday.
This matchup is the second game of a doubleheader with the Wagner and RMU women's teams set to tip it off at 1:00 p.m.
First Place vs. Second Place
*Wagner's win over the Red Flash moved the Seahawks into a four-way tie for second place in the NEC standings with St. Francs Brooklyn, Sacred Heart, and Bryant. Robert Morris, meanwhile, has been the class of the NEC through seven games thus far as the Colonials sit atop the league standings at 6-1.
All-Time Series Against The Robert Morris University Colonials
*The Seahawks and the Colonials are meeting for the 75th time with Robert Morris holding a 44-30 edge in the head-to-head series.
*Wagner has won seven of the last eight meetings between the schools, including three straight
*Those three straight wins for the Seahawks in this series all came a year ago when Wagner swept the two-game regular season matchups before knocking off RMU in the 2018 NEC Tournament's semifinal round at the Spiro Sports Center
2017-18 Meetings Between Wagner and RMU
*January 20, 2018, Wagner 62, Robert Morris 49 (Staten Island, NY)
*January 28, 2018, Wagner 77, Robert Morris 64 (Moon Township, NJ)
*March 2, 2018, Wagner 75, Robert Morris 64 (NEC Semifinals– Staten Island, NY)
Wagner won the three 2017-18 meetings by an average final score of 71.3-59.0
Wagner Last Time Out
*Senior guard
Elijah Davis matched his career high with 20 points, which included four clutch free throws in the final 21 seconds, redshirt senior guard
Romone Saunders added 18, and Wagner rode a 62 percent second-half shooting effort in earning an 83-79 win at Saint Francis U on Thursday night at DeGol Arena.
*Other key performers in this entertaining, offensive-minded affair for Wagner included unflappable sophomore point guard
Chase Freeman, who finished with 13 points, four assists and just one turnover in 32 minutes, while redshirt senior
AJ Sumbry bulled his way down low for 12 points and 10 rebounds in recording his team-best fourth double-double of the season.
*Saunders, a bonafide NEC Player of the Year candidate, was his usual versatile self on this night, registering a stat line of 18 points, with a career-tying six assists, to go with five rebounds and three steals.
*After Wagner took a 36-35 halftime lead, the second half was a wild, back-and-forth contest which featured tremendous shooting from both teams, as high-powered Red Flash were nearly as hot from the floor as Wagner following the break, hitting on 59 percent of their shots over the game's final 20 minutes.
*Also contributing to the win on the Seahawk side were senior guard
Devin Liggeons (8 points, 4 rebounds), freshman guard
Tyrone Nesby IV (7 points in his 3
rd start of the season) and sophomore
Nigel Jackson (5 points off the bench).
*For the game, SFU held a slight 51 percent to 47 percent edge in shooting but Wagner led in rebounding (33-30).
*From the free low line, Wagner shot a robust 85 percent (17-of-20), highlighted by a perfect 10-of-10 showing from the charity stripe in the second half.
*With the win, the Seahawks move ahead of SFU in the all-time series and now lead 37-36.
*Wagner is now 13-21 all-time at SFU
*Seahawk seventh-year head coach
Bashir Mason improves his career record to 9-4 against Saint Francis U and is 5-2 when facing the Red Flash on the road.
About the Seahawks
*After opening NEC play with a 3-1 record, Wagner dropped consecutive league games last week, to Mount St. Mary's and Sacred Heart, before rebounding with the win at SFU in improving to 4-3 in conference.
*The Green & White are guided by two-time and reigning Northeast Conference (NEC) Coach of the Year
Bashir Mason (118-88, .575), the fastest coach to win 100 games in Seahawk history, who has developed 12 All-NEC selections during his tenure.
*Now in his seventh season at the helm of the Seahawk ship, Mason was the youngest head coach at the Division I level when he was named the 18th head men's basketball coach in school history on March 26, 2012. At age 34, he remains one of the nation's youngest head coaches, checking in as the sixth-most youthful head coach heading into the 2018-19 campaign.
*Defense and rebounding have been at the forefront of Wagner's success throughout Mason's tenure and the 2018-19 season has been no different as the Seahawks rank second in the NEC in field goal percentage defense (.433) and first in rebounding margin (+5.8).
*Wagner is led by 6-3 redshirt senior guard and captain
Romone Saunders, who checks in at 18.3 points (2
nd in the NEC), 6.9 rebounds per game (5
th in the NEC), and 3.7 assists (7
th in NEC). Saunders tops the league with a .882 free throw shooting percentage (90-of-102), a figures that ranks in the top-20 nationally.
*Senior guard
Elijah Davis is next in scoring at 11.6 ppg. (23rd in the NEC) and has two 20-point plus games to his credit this season, while 6-8 redshirt senior forward
AJ Sumbry and 5-10 sophomore point guard
Chase Freeman are next at 9.3 and 7.7 ppg., respectively.
About the Robert Morris Colonials
*RMU features three double-digit scorers in Josh Williams (14.7 ppg.), Malikk Petteway (10.6 ppg.) and Charles Bain (10.6 ppg.).
*Petteway is also the team's leading rebounder at 6.0 boards per game.
*The Colonials' top playmaker is guard Jon Williams who checks in at 4.4 assists per game.
*The Colonials, who are 11-9 overall and 6-1 in NEC play, are coming off a 72-64 home win over Sacred Heart on Thursday, a victory that ran RMU's win streak to three games.
*Senior guard Matty McConnell scored a season-high 19 points to lead RMU in the win over the Pioneers. Williams dished out a career-high 10 assists in the win over Sacred Heart and also finished with four rebounds and a steal.
*This marked the first double-digit assist game for Williams in his career, and the Colonials improved to 6-1 (.857) when Williams dishes out at least seven assists in a contest.
Saunders 27th All-Time in Career Scoring
*With his 18 points on Thursday night,
Romone Saunders remains in 27
th-place on Wagner's all-time career scoring list with 1,171 career points, just one shy of Ed Peterson's 1,172 (1953-56).
23. Bob Mahala, Sr. (1950-52, 1955-57) 1,217
24. Tyler Murray (2008-12) 1,216
25. Tom Miller (1971-74) 1,174
26. Ed Peterson (1953-56) 1,172
27. Romone Saunders (2014-pres.) 1,171
Saunders In All-Time Record
*Career Free Throw Percentage: 3
rd (.786)
*Career Three-Point Attempts: 9
th (479)
*Career Three-Pointers Made: 10
th (171)
Coaches vs. Cancer Suits and Sneakers Week
*During Suits And Sneakers Week, which is January 21-27 this year, a week where college and high school coaches across the nation will wear sneakers with their suits during games to raise awareness for Coaches vs. Cancer and the fight against cancer.
*National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) teamed with the American Cancer Society over 25 years ago to form Coaches vs. Cancer. Since its inception, Coaches vs. Cancer has raised over $115 million to support the American Cancer Society and save lives.
*The fight against cancer is working. From 1991-2016, the cancer death rate fell 27%. That means more than 2.6 million deaths were avoided from 1991-2016.
*With a presence in more than 5,000 communities, the American Cancer Society is structured to fight cancer on all fronts.
Northeast Conference Launches New Branding Initiative
*The NEC launched its "All In, Ball Out" branding campaign at the league's "Social" Media Day in Brooklyn on Oct. 24, 2018.
*The campaign is meant to capture the essence and attitude of the NEC's basketball-centric nature, and convey a host of traits common to its student-athletes, teams and the Conference itself.
*A series of hoops theme nights were announced to take place during league play and enhance the fan experience through coordinated marketing efforts within the conference. The theme nights are NEC New Year (Jan. 3 & 5), MLK Day (Jan. 21) and Love & NEC Basketball (Feb. 14 & 16).
Wagner Picked Fourth in NEC Preseason Poll
*The Northeast Conference (NEC) preseason coaches' poll was announced on October 24 at the league's Social Media Day at Barclays Center, and the defending regular season champion Wagner men's basketball team was predicted to finish fourth by the coaches for the upcoming 2018-19 season.
*Saint Francis U was tabbed the preseason favorite, securing eight first-place votes. Fairleigh Dickinson was predicted to finish second while defending league champion LIU Brooklyn was picked third, with both the Knights and Blackbirds securing one first-place preseason vote apiece.
*Wagner checked in at fourth, Robert Morris was chosen fifth, with Central Connecticut and St. Francis Brooklyn taking the sixth and seventh spots, respectively. Bryant (8th), Sacred Heart (9th) and Mount St. Mary's round out the 10-team poll.
Up Next
The Seahawks return to the friendly confines of the Spiro Sports Center on Thursday, January 31 when the Seahawks host Bryant in a 7:00 p.m. tip in a matchup that can be seen live on ESPN+.
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