Wagner relied on its grit and intensity to reach the NCAA Tournament, and the Seahawks made another statement once they got there.
Sixteenth-seeded Wagner fought off a late comeback attempt from Howard to escape with a 71-68 victory in their NCAA Tournament First Four game Tuesday night at the University of Dayton Arena in Dayton, Ohio.
The Seahawks moved on to play No. 1 North Carolina in the Round of 64 Thursday in Charlotte, North Carolina in the West Region.
In doing so, Wagner was the exact definition of “survive and advance.”
Wagner, coached by former St. Anthony High School and Seton Hall star Donald Copeland, didn’t have an easy path to the Big Dance, but the Seahawks plowed through adversity.
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“I mean, it’s phenomenal,” Copeland said. “You dream of this moment, not just as a player but as a coach to compete for a championship, and we did that regardless of what we were going through. We never stopped believing. We never stopped having an expectation of ourselves.”
As the No. 6 seed in the NEC Tournament, Wagner went on the road and beat the top three seeds – including No. 2 Merrimack in the final – to earn its first conference tournament title since 2003.
Making that even more remarkable?
Wagner’s been down to seven healthy players for an extended period of time.
Copeland’s team continued its momentum Tuesday night, though Howard did all it could to take it away late.
The Seahawks opened up a 17-point lead over Howard with just more than 16 minutes to go in the second half. The Bison cut it to seven with 11 minutes remaining, but Wagner went back up by double digits until Howard again closed its deficit to single digits in the final minutes.
It was a wild finish.
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Wagner’s Melvin Council Jr., who finished with a game-high 21 points, made a tough jumper at the 1:24 mark and drew the foul. Council drew the foul but missed the free throw.
Howard cut it to three points with just more than a minute left as Marcus Dockery got a steal as the Bisons pressed, leading to a layup from Isiah Warfield.
After Council missed a jumper on the other end, Howard guard Bryce Harris drove the basket and made a tough layup to make it a one-point game with 17 seconds left.
Howard then fouled Julian Brown, who made both foul shots to push Wagner’s lead back to three.
The Bison attempted three three-pointers in the closing seconds as they managed to get the offensive rebounds, but couldn’t drain any of them.
Just like that, Wagner had its first NCAA Tournament win in program history.
Three takeaways
1. Credit Wagner for its grit, intensity
Playing with seven players isn’t easy.
Far, far from it.
And yet despite that challenge – which has hindered the Seahawks’ ability to even have live practices – Wagner has fought through it, and did so on a big stage Tuesday night.
Wagner held Howard to 38.6 percent shooting (the Bison were 7-of-24 from three-point range).
Copeland has done a masterful coaching job getting every ounce of production and energy from the players he does have available.
“Having seven players, you know, I would imagine some places they might just come in the gym and just, ‘Hey, listen, we got seven, let’s go through the motions,'” Copeland said. “We never did that. We prepared the right way. We expected to win even when we did lose.”
2. Wagner played efficient offensively
The Seahawks entered the game with the nation’s sixth-best defense, allowing 62.1 points per game.
They again played well on that end of the floor against Howard, but their offense was also stellar.
Wagner shot 52.7 percent from the field, including 8-of-17 from the perimeter.
The Seahawks had 16 assists on 29 made field goals.
3. Nice game by Bergen Catholic grad Julian Brown
The 6-foot-1 sophomore guard finished with 15 points on 4-of-7 shooting (3-of-4 from long distance).
Brown drained a three-pointer with eight minutes left that put Wagner up by 13 points. And of course, he was clutch with his late free throws.
Perhaps the most impressive stat of Brown’s night?
Brown played all 40 minutes.
Wagner needed every one of them.
First appeared on www.northjersey.com