Newark, NJ - The Wagner College men's basketball team improved its record to 6-4 on the 2024 season with a 50-43 win over the NJIT Highlanders on Saturday evening at the Joel & Diane Bloom Wellness and Events Center.
With the loss, NJIT falls to 2-11 during its 2024 campaign.
The Seahawks dominated the Highlanders on the glass in the first half, corralling nine more offensive and two more defensive rebounds than NJIT to lead 30-19 in the category at the break. Wagner would outscore NJIT 7-0 in second chance points during the same span.
Regardless, the Seahawks and the Highlanders were knotted up at 18 a piece after 20 minutes of action.Â
The Green & White scored the first basket of the contest thanks to a junior Keyontae Lewis putback layup. The Seahawks would go up by as many as four and even trail for a moment in the first half.Â
A pull-up jumpshot from graduate student Zae Blake tied the game back up at 18 with three minutes to go in the first.
To start the second half, graduate student Ja'Kair Sanchez hit his lone three of the afternoon to extend Wagner's lead as the Seahawks would never look back. Sanchez led Wagner with 15 points and five rebounds of a 42.8% shooting clip from the field.
A 17-10 run between from the 14 to the six minute mark helped the Seahawks edge away from the Highlanders, before buckets from Blake and junior R.J, Greene forced NJIT to foul to stop the clock with one minute remaining.
For Blake, the graduate student from Washington D.C. tied his career-high as a Seahawk with 11 points on 5-11 shooting.Â
Successful free throw attempts from Sanchez and senior Javier Ezquerra secured the third consecutive win for the Green & White. The Seahawks allowed a season-low 43 points to move to two games above .500 on the year.
Wagner outscored NJIT 14-8 in paint points in the second half alone, and 26-20 throughout the entirety of the game. Wagner also outscored NJIT 20-8 in bench points and 13-4 in second chance points.
Greene chipped in six points with seven rebounds as freshman Zavier Fitch added two points and grabbed a team-high 10 rebounds, his first double-digit rebounding performance in his collegiate career.
Coming into the game, the Seahawks were tied with Big 12 member Cincinnati with the ninth best scoring defense in the nation by allowing only 58.9 points per game.
Next up, Wagner will face-off against Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) member Manhattan on Wednesday, December 18 at the Spiro Sports Center. Tip-off is set for 7:00 pm.
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