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Staten Island, NY - The Wagner College men's basketball team will play host Central Connecticut in the final home game of the regular season on Saturday, February 19, with tip-off set for 1:00 pm.
Last Time Out
Behind 45 combined points by graduate students
Will Martinez and
Alex Morales, Wagner earned a 76-67 road win over Sacred Heart on Thursday night.
Martinez poured in a career-high 25 points, while Morales contributed 20 points in the win. The duo combined with redshirt-senior
Raekwon Rogers for a team-high seven rebounds apiece.
Leading 62-60 with under four minutes to play, buckets by Martinez and Morales as well as a three by senior
Jahbril Price Noel powered a 7-2 Wagner run that gave the Seahawks a 69-62 lead with 1:25 to play, which proved to be the deciding sequence of the game.
Thank You Seniors
Prior to Saturday's game, Wagner will honor
Nigel Jackson,
Raekwon Rogers,
Elijah Ford,
Alex Morales, and
Will Martinez in a pregame ceremony.
All five student-athletes have made a lasting impact on the Seahawks' men's basketball program throughout their time on Grymes Hill.
Martinez Steps Up
Will Martinez has set a new career-high for points in consecutive games. Against Merrimack, Martinez scored 22 points, while contributing a game-high 25 points against Sacred Heart on Thursday.
Wagner's sixth man entered the week 12
th in the NEC in scoring at 12.8 points per game and 10
th in field goal percentage at 49.5%.
Going For The Sweep
In the last meeting between the two teams,
Alex Morales' game-saving block on the final possession of the game preserved a 54-52 victory for the Seahawks in New Britain.
Wagner holds a 33-21 lead in the all-time head-to-head series, which began in 1939, and includes five wins over the Blue Devils in the last six matchups between the two teams.
Last year, the two-teams split the season series.
Scouting The Blue Devils
Since the last matchup between the Seahawks and Blue Devils, CCSU is 2-2 with wins over FDU and Merrimack as well as losses to St. Francis Brooklyn and Bryant.
The Blue Devils are 7-20 overall and 4-10 in NEC play.
Seahawks Soar In The Rankings
Wagner continues to be well-represented in the national polls.
The Seahawks check in at #16 in the Mid-Major Top-25 Poll, released by collegeinsider.com.
Wagner entered the week ranked 123
rd in the KenPom rankings and 112
th in the NCAA's NET rankings, all of which are tops among Northeast Conference (NEC) schools.
Toughness Wins
Wagner's style of play reflects well in the statistical rankings. Coming into the week, Wagner ranks 21
st in the nation in scoring margin (11.6), 33
rd in scoring defense (63 ppg), 37
th in rebounding margin (5.7), 26
th in turnovers forced (15.85), and 37
th in field goal percentage (47.2).
Historic Streak Comes To An End
Wagner's loss against Merrimack marked the end of the nation's longest win streak.
The 14 consecutive wins set the record for the longest winning streak for a Seahawk team under head coach
Bashir Mason and was the longest winning streak for a Wagner squad since winning 16 straight during the 1978-79 season under P.J. Carlesimo.
Wagner's 13-0 start in NEC play fell two short of the NEC standard set by UMBC, which won 15 in a row in 1998-99 before dropping two of its last three games to settle for a 17-3 record.
The last conference school to rattle off 13 straight NEC wins was LIU. The Sharks won 13 in a row in 2010-11, a stretch that included three NEC Tournament wins.
Morales Continues To Dominate
In Wagner's win over LIU,
Alex Morales became the 46th player in school annals to score 1,000 and 242nd in conference history. He hit the millennium mark on a first half three-pointer and boosted his career total to 1,019 points.
Morales came up huge in Thursday's 69-57 win over Mount St. Mary's on ESPNU with 21 points, eight rebounds, five assists and a pair of blocks.
Morales ranks in the NEC top-7 in scoring (17.8, fourth), rebounding (7.7, fourth), assists (3.7, fifth), steals (1.7, fifth), FG percentage (.524, seventh), FT percentage (.788, sixth) and A/TO ratio (1.5, seventh).
Morales has won NEC Player of the Week honors a league-best five times.
Earlier this season, Morales was named to the 2022 Lou Henson Award Mid-Season Watch List.
Postseason Picture
Wagner has clinched a top-two seed in the NEC Tournament and is guaranteed a semifinal home game with a quarterfinal win.
The Seahawks, who have advanced to the semis in six of the last 10 seasons, are in search of the program's second NEC Tournament championship, having won it all back in 2003.
When playing on Staten Island, the Seahawks are 16-13 in NEC Tournament play, including going 12-11 in the Spiro Sports Center (opened February 1999). Wagner is 7-19 in the postseason in road and neutral sites.
The Seahawks won their lone NEC championship in 2003, and reached the NEC final in 1993 (losing to Rider), 2005 (losing to FDU), 2016 (losing to FDU), and 2018 (losing to LIU).
Fletcher Makes An Impact
Junior forward
Ja'Mier Fletcher is shooting 65.4 percent from the field in NEC play. Last week, he gave the Seahawks a lift off the bench, hitting 6-8 shots while averaging 6.5ppg and 3.5 rpg.
Mason's Milestone Victories
Wagner's win over Fairleigh Dickinson marked the 100th career victory in conference play for head coach
Bashir Mason, who became the 11th coach in NEC history to reach the century mark.
Earlier this season, Mason earned his 150th overall victory against Fairfield. Mason is already Wagner's winningest coach in the Division I era and reached the milestone in 276 games, winning more than 54% of his games
Mason was named to the Athletic's "40 Under 40 – Rising Stars In Men's College Basketball" list.
According to the article, which features Mason at #15, Mason "has established himself as one of the top mid-major coaches in America."
Last season, Mason entered elite territory, becoming just the second coach in the conference's 40-year history to win three Jim Phelan Coach of the Year honors, joining NEC Hall of Fame coach Howie Dickenman, who earned the distinction four times in his storied career at CCSU.
Following the 2020-21 season, Mason was also a finalist for the 2020-21 Hugh Durham Award, which is presented annually to the top Division I mid-major coach in college basketball.
Wagner's head coach was also a finalist for the Ben Jobe award, which is presented annually to the top Division I minority coach.
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 and is the fastest coach to win 100 games in Seahawk history.
The Schedule
Wagner will close out the regular season with road contests at Fairleigh Dickinson and Bryant on February 24 and 26.
