WATCH | Live Stats | Game Notes
North Andover, MA - The Wagner College men's basketball team will take on #2 Merrimack in the Northeast Conference (NEC) Championship game on Tuesday night at 7:00 pm. The game will be televised nationally on ESPN2.
The Road To The Championship
The Seahawks punched their ticket to the NEC title game with a 66-56 victory at #1 CCSU on Saturday. The Seahawks were led by sophomore
Julian Brown's 20 points, while junior
Melvin Council Jr. and sophomore
Keyontae Lewis added 12 points apiece. Junior
Tahron Allen was the fourth Seahawk in double figures with 11 points.
Wagner led for 32:48 minutes of the contest, but battled foul trouble for most of the second half. Lewis and Council fouled out throughout the second half, leaving Wagner with just five players for the final minutes of the contest.
The Blue Devils tied the game at 39-39 with 9:06 to play, but never took the lead, as back-to-back buckets by Council extended the Wagner lead to 52-45 with 2:57 to play. A clutch basket by junior
Javier Ezquerra with 2:23 to play put Wagner up six at 54-48, with Wagner staying calm at the line late to earn the victory.
Three days earlier, Wagner earned a 60-57 victory over #3 Sacred Heart in the NEC quarterfinal. In a game that was a one-possession game for the final 11:13 minutes of the second half, the Green and White prevailed late in dramatic fashion.
Wagner was the lone road team to earn a victory in last Wednesday's quarterfinal action.
One year after falling at Sacred Heart in the quarterfinal round, Wagner took a one-point lead on a clutch layup by junior
Tahron Allen with 46 seconds remaining, before a pair of free throws by junior
Melvin Council Jr. with 17 seconds left made it a three-point game. A last-second shot attempt by the Pioneers fell short, giving the Seahawks the victory.
Wagner In The NEC Tournament
This year's Seahawk squad is the first #6 seed in the NEC final since Wagner's 2005 team. Wagner is looking to become the first #6 seed to win the tournament since Mount St. Mary's in 1999 and tie the Mountaineers for the lowest seed ever to win the NEC tournament.
Wagner is now 27-34 all-time in the NEC Tournament. This marks Wagner's 35
th NEC Tournament appearance.
The Seahawks hold a 7-9 record overall as the #6 seed, but haven't entered the postseason ranked sixth since 2011.
Wagner is 9-21 in the postseason in road and neutral sites. Teams hosting the NEC championship game on their home court have posted a 24-13 record. No team has ever won three road games to win the NEC title.
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), 2018 (losing to LIU), and 2022 (losing to Bryant).
The Series
Tuesday's final marks the first-ever meeting between the Seahawks and Warriors in the NEC Tournament.
Wagner is the lone team to earn a road victory at Merrimack this season and is 2-0 under head coach
Donald Copeland in North Andover. Tuesday will mark the first time the Seahawks and Warriors play at Lawler Arena, with all previous meetings taking place at Hammel Court.
Trailing 38-31 at the half, the Wagner men's basketball team outscored Merrimack 40-27 in the second period to earn a thrilling 71-65 victory in the first meeting between the two teams this season. Limited to just seven players once again, the Seahawks were led by freshman
Seck Zongo and junior
Melvin Council Jr., who scored 15 points apiece, while junior
Tahron Allen added 14 points. Zongo added two blocks and seven rebounds to his career-high point total, while Council grabbed a career-high 13 rebounds for his second double-double of the season.
Defensively, the Seahawks limited the Warriors to 37% (10-27) shooting from the field in the second half, including a 2-14 (14.3%) clip from long range.
In the rematch on Staten Island, Wagner led 24-21 at the half, but it wasn't enough, as Merrimack earned a 60-44 victory at the Spiro Sports Center.
Council Earns All-NEC Honors
Junior
Melvin Council Jr. was named a First Team All-NEC selection, the league announced on Tuesday.
Voted on by the league's head coaches, Council becomes the first Seahawk to earn First Team All-NEC honors since Alex Morales in 2022.
The league-leader with 35.82 minutes per game, Council enters the NEC Tournament ranked fourth in the circuit in scoring (15.3 ppg), eighth in rebounding (5.8), sixth in assists (3.61), and third in assist/turnover ratio (2.02).
Council has scored 20 or more points on six occasions, including two of the last three regular season games, and scored in double figures in 15 of 16 conference games. The Rochester native recorded four double-doubles throughout the regular season.
The first-year Seahawk led the Green and White to a road victory at Saint Francis U on February 15 with the game-winner in overtime as part of a 20-point night.
Merrimack's Jordan Derkack earned Player of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year honors, while the Warriors' Adam "Budd" Clark was voted Rookie of the Year. CCSU's Patrick Sellers took home Jim Phelan Coach of the Year honors.
Joining Council on the NEC First Team are Derkack, CCSU's Allan Jeanne-Rose, FDU's Ansley Almonor, and Le Moyne's Kaiyem Cleary.
The Presidential Connection
On February 20, The Wagner College Board of Trustees unanimously named
Dr. Jeffrey A. Doggett as president-elect, opening a new chapter in Wagner College's rise as a destination for practical liberal arts education. A strategic leader and seasoned steward of institutional transformation and growth, Doggett will become the College's 21st president on July 1, 2024.
Doggett joins Wagner from Merrimack College, where he currently serves as Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer and Chancellor of Learning and Student Success. During his time at Merrimack, the college grew its undergraduate and graduate enrollment while strengthening its financial position and academic reputation. Doggett also helped reposition Merrimack in various ways: elevating its brand and ranking, improving its standing within its host communities, and moving its athletics program into Division I.
The Wagner DNA
At 62.6 points per game, Wagner is 8th in the country in scoring defense while also leading the Northeast Conference (NEC).
Downtown Staten Island
Defensively, the Seahawks hold teams to 29.7% shooting from long range, good for 10
th in the country. Wagner held CCSU to 5-26 (19.2%) from downtown on Saturday.
Offensively, Wagner is 5-2 when connecting on nine or more threes per game. Against Sacred Heart, the Seahawks connected on seven three-pointers in the first half.
Ezquerra Closing In On Milestone
Junior
Javier Ezquerra is closing in on 250 career assists. The NEC's active leader has 132 assists on the year and 248 for his career.
The Key
Sophomore forward
Keyontae Lewis has scored in double figures in six of Wagner's last eight games. He has shot 50 percent or better from the field in 13-of-16 NEC regular season games this season and ranked first in the league in field goal accuracy in conference play at 60.9 percent. Against CCSU, Lewis scored 10 points in the game's first six minutes.
Taking Care Of The Ball
Wagner's 9.9 turnovers per game are 32
nd in the country and first in the NEC. As a team Wagner's assist/turnover ratio of 1.32 leads the NEC. Individually, the Seahawks have two of the top three players in the NEC in assist/turnover ratio in junior
Javier Ezquerra (2nd / 2.10) and Council (3rd / 2.00).
Scouting The Warriors
The defending NEC champions enter Tuesday's final with a 21-11 overall record and earned victories over LIU and Le Moyne to reach the title game for the second consecutive year. Merrimack is 13-1 at home this season and entered the postseason as the #2 seed in the NEC tournament.
Next Up
The winner of Tuesday's title game earns the NEC's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.
