Emmitsburg, MD - Coming off two straight wins, most recently a hard-earned 63-57 victory over Central Connecticut at home on Thursday night, the Wagner men's basketball team will meet the Mount St. Mary's Mountaineers for the second time this season.

In the first matchup between these teams back on January 19 on Staten Island, the Mount came away with a 70-56 victory.

The Matchup

The Seahawks enter Saturday's play with an overall record of 12-12 and in a three-way tie for fourth in the NEC standings at 7-6, as the Seahawks, St. Francis Brooklyn and FDU all sport those matching league records. The Mount comes in 7-19 overall and 4-9 in NEC play but are on a high following an impressive 76-62 home win over first-place Robert Morris on Thursday night.

All-Time Series

Wagner holds a 37-23 lead in the all-time head-to-head series and head coach Bashir Mason is 8-6 all-time against the Mountaineers. These teams split their two meetings a year ago, each holding serve on their respective home floors with Wagner coming away with a 76-57 win on Staten Island (12/29/17) and Mount posting a 73-62 victory (2/24/18) in the NEC regular season finale.

Wagner Last Time Out

Redshirt senior guard Romone Saunders scored 18 points to lead three players in double figures as the Wagner men's basketball earned a regular season sweep of Central Connecticut St., knocking off the Blue Devils 63-57 at the Spiro Sports Center on Thursday night. With the win, the Seahawks improved to 12-12 on the season, 7-6 in Northeast Conference (NEC) play while CCSU fell to 11-15 overall, 5-8 in league.

While the Green & White never trailed, and led by as many as 15 in the opening half, this victory was far from easy as Central nipped at Wagner's heels throughout an intensely-played second half, before forging the game's lone tie at 49-49 with 5:43 left to play. Sophomore point guard Chase Freeman, who returned to the lineup after sitting out the last two games due to injury, then shook free in the lane for a layup with 5:12 left to give the Seahawks the lead for good at 51-49. 

The biggest separation Wagner could muster until the game's waning seconds was five. Central threw one last, late scare at the Seahawks when Tyler Kohl was fouled in the act of shooting a three-pointer, and proceeded to hit all three free throws in making it a 60-57 game with just 26 seconds remaining. The Seahawks answered with a pair of Saunders free throws with 22 seconds left to increase the lead to 62-57, before one final free throw by senior guard Devin Liggeons fashioned the final score at 63-57.

Wagner was in control of this game early, forcing CCSU to misfire on its first eight field goal attempts and limited the Blue Devils to 3-of-21 shooting start from the floor. A 6-0 burst, capped by a three-pointer by freshman guard Tyrone Nesby IV staked Wagner to its biggest lead of the game at 32-17 with 1:59 to go in the first half. Central would close the half won an 8-0 run with four of these points coming on consecutive layups by Jamir Coleman to closing the deficit to 32-25 at the break.

After Coleman opened the second half with a three-pointer, the Seahawks countered with a 7-0 run, fueled by another Nesby three-ball, and capped by a Saunders layup, in pushing the lead back to double digits at 39-28 with 17:04 left.

CCSU responded with an 18-7 run, capped by a Coleman jumper with 6:43 remaining, to draw within one point at 47-46 and then it was a dogfight between the teams the rest of the way.

Redshirt senior forward AJ Sumbry continued his productive offensive stretch, hitting for double figures for a third straight game with an 11-point effort, to go with five rebounds. Freeman was the third Seahawk in double figures, winding up with 10 points, along with five assists and just one turnover in an efficient 28-minute stint. Nesby finished with his second straight nine-point game, with tonight's effort coming after a nine-point outing in Wagner's 68-65 win on Saturday at defending NEC champion LIU Brooklyn.

Kohl led the Blue Devils with 18 points while Coleman and Hugley added 17 and 10 points, respectively.

Mount St. Mary's Last Time Out

A big second half propelled Mount St. Mary's to a 76-62 win over Robert Morris on Thursday night at Knott Arena.  Freshman Vado Morse paced the Mount with 21 points while Jalen Gibbs added 14 points and eight rebounds in the win.  

The Mountaineers outscored Robert Morris, 45-24, in the second half to secure their second consecutive victory.

Trailing 41-33 early in the second half, the Mountaineers used a 10-to-2 run to even the score.  Morse scored the first six points of the run, and a Dee Barnes four-point play with 13:40 left in the half tied the score at 43-43.  The teams exchanged the lead for the next few minutes, with Robert Morris pulling ahead, 51-50, on a Josh Williams three-pointer with 10:23 remaining in the second half.  

The Mount then rattled off a 10-0 run to take the lead for good.  Omar Habwe started the run with a four-point play of his own to put the Mountaineers ahead, 54-51.  After a turnover, Gibbs scored on a baseline drive to put the Mount up by five.  Damian Chong Qui forced a turnover on the inbounds pass, and fed Habwe for a thunderous dunk that pushed the advantage to 58-51 and forced the Colonials to call timeout.  

After a miss by Robert Morris, Gibbs capped the run with a transition basket on a feed from Chong Qui that extended the lead to 60-51 with 9:05 on the clock.  After Robert Morris cut it to 65-55 with 4:47 left on a Charles Bain drive, Gibbs converted a traditional three-point play and Morse a jumper to put the Mount ahead 70-55 with 3:10 remaining.  From there, the Mount was able to close out the victory.

Morse went 5-of-8 from the field and 10-of-12 at the foul line for his 21 points while adding four assists, four rebounds and a pair of steals in the victory.  Gibbs was 6-of-10 from the field for his 14 points while also collecting a team-high eight boards.  

Dee Barnes went 4-for-5 from the field for 12 points while Habwe finished with nine points, four boards and a pair of steals in the game.  Chong Qui added seven points, five rebounds, four assists and two steals for the Mount, who pulled within one game of the final Northeast Conference playoff spot.  Josh Williams led Robert Morris (13-13, 8-5 NEC) with 16 points while Jon Williams chipped in 14 points.  Bain added nine points and a game-high nine rebounds in the loss.

The Mountaineers shot 51.1 percent from the floor in the victory and were 24-of-32 (.750) at the foul line.  The Mount also held a 31-27 edge on the boards while forcing Robert Morris into 12 second-half turnovers.  Robert Morris shot 39.6 percent in the game while hitting 10-of-24 (.417) from beyond the three-point arc. In the opening half, Robert Morris raced to an early 10-2 lead, and held a 38-27 advantage after a Bain three-pointer with 1:37 left in the half.  The Mount scored the final four points on the first half on a Barnes lay-up and a pair of Chong Qui free throws to make it 38-31 at the break.

Sumbry Moving Up on All-Time Blocks List

*With his three blocks vs. CCSU, AJ Sumbry is up to 127 for his Seahawk career, which places him fourth place, ahead of all-time Wagner great and 2018 Hall of Fame Inductee Jermaine Hall (1999-2033). For his collegiate career, Sumbry has 138 blocks to his credit, including 11 he had during his freshman season of 2013-14 at Quinnipiac.

All-Time Blocks

1 Naofall Folahan (2010-14)                230

2 Frantz Pierre-Louis (1994-1999)      176

3 Mladin Mutavdzic (1991-1993)         135

5 Jermaine Hall (1999-2003)              124

Saunders 22nd in All-Time Scoring

*Redshirt senior guard Romone Saunders is up to 1,253 career points, good for 22nd on the Seahawk all-time list. 

All-Time Scoring 

20.       Frantz Pierre-Louis (1994-99)                  1,271

21.       Jamal Smith (2004-08)                             1,260

*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 NECNewYear (Jan. 3 & 5), MLK Day (Jan. 21) and Love & NEC Basketball (Feb. 14 & 16).

6-7 Forward Darion Jordan-Thomas Signs Letter of Intent

During the early signing period back in November, 6'7" Massachusetts forward Darion Jordan-Thomas from Woodstock Academy (CT) signed a National Letter of Intent to continue his academic and athletic career at Wagner College. Jordan-Thomas, who scored more than 1,600 career points in his high school career, was a standout at Proctor Academy in Andover, NH, before electing to spend a prep school year at Woodstock Academy. The Brockton, MA native, who will be a freshman in 2019-20.

Up Next

Following the Mount game, Wagner is next in action on Thursday, February 21 when the Seahawks travel to Bryant to meet the Bulldogs in a 7pm tip in a game that will be televised nationally on CBS Sports Network.

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