Sims totaled ten points, five assists and four rebounds for the Skyhawks in their season finale (PHOTO BY Mary Gettens) |
Ezquerra and Hunt lead Seahawks with 13 points apiece
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. (February 23, 2023) – Wagner College held Stonehill College to 19 first half points in grabbing a nine-point halftime lead and made it stand over the final 20 minutes to secure a 54-44 victory in Northeast Conference men's basketball action inside the Spiro Sports Center tonight.
Stonehill (14-17, 10-6 NEC), which entered the night a half game behind NEC preseason favorites Merrimack College in the Conference standings, sees its drive to become just the fourth first-year NEC member to claim at least a share of the Conference's regular season championship halted with the loss and the Warriors' 70-54 triumph over Central Connecticut State University tonight in North Andover, Massachusetts. The Skyhawks closed out their inaugural NCAA Division I season in second place in the NEC standings, currently a game and a half behind Merrimack and a half game in front of both Fairleigh Dickinson (16-14, 9-6 NEC) and Saint Francis (Pa.) University (12-16, 9-6 NEC) with the remainder of the league having one more game to play on Saturday. Wagner (14-12, 7-8 NEC) finishes its regular season schedule at Saint Francis on Saturday at 4 p.m.
Junior DeLonnie Hunt and sophomore Javier Ezquerra each scored a game-high 13 points for Wagner in the low-scoring defensive battle. Ezquerra made 4-of-6 shots, including 3-for-5 from three-point distance, for his 13 points, while adding three assists and two rebounds. Hunt made 7-of-8 free-throws and dished out two assists, while senior Brandon Brown grabbed a game-high 11 rebounds with nine points and three steals.
Burnett scored a team-high 11 points and grabbed four rebounds for the Skyhawks (PHOTO BY Mary Gettens) |
Fifth-year Andrew Sims posted ten points, five assists and four rebounds for Stonehill, while classmate Isaiah Burnett scored a team-high 11 points on 4-of-8 shooting, with four rebounds.
Stonehill held the lead for just 100-seconds in the game, which came after a Burnett hook shot (7-6) four and a half minutes into the game, as Wagner limited the Skyhawks to 19 points on 38.1-percent shooting (8-for-21) in the first half. The Seahawks claimed the win despite shooting 37% (17-for-46) overall, including 7-for-22 (31.8%) in the second half while the Skyhawks made 50% of their shots (9-18) in the closing 20-minutes, but was unable to take advantage. Wagner dominated the glass, though, limiting Stonehill to just three offensive boards, and finishing with a 34-20 rebounding advantage, pulling down 13 offensive boards.
The game was knotted (12-12) after a putback from sophomore Christopher Melis with 8:45 remaining in the first half, but Wagner got three-pointers from Ezquerra and postgrad Jahbril Price-Noel on its way to an eight-point cushion (20-12) a minute later. Hunt stretched the Seahawks lead to nine (24-15) with five minutes to go, which would be the halftime margin (28-19).
Three-pointers from postgrad Max Zegarowski and fifth-year Shamir Johnson pulled Stonehill back within four (28-24), four minutes into the second half. Ezquerra sparked Wagner to a ten-point lead (36-26) with a pair of three-pointers, but the Skyhawks made another run, closing within four again (36-32) with 11:33 to go after another Zegarowski triple and a three-point play by Burnett.
Stonehill could get no closer as Wagner scored the next eight points, capped by a three-pointer from sophomore Zaire Williams, to open a 12-point lead (44-32) with 6:49 on the clock. The Skyhawks made one last push to within seven (44-37) after a Burnett free-throw with five minutes remaining, but Wagner had an answer each time, restoring its double-digit lead (48-37) after four-straight from Brown, and the Seahawks saw the game out from there.
Noteworthy
- Tonight capped the collegiate careers for Stonehill's four fifth-year seniors, who helped the Skyhawks to 61 wins, an NCAA Division II Tournament bid, and through the first transition year to the NCAA Division I level, with a chance at claiming the NEC regular season championship into its final regular season game.
- Burnett, Sims and Johnson are joined in the group by classmate Josh Mack.
- Sims finishes his Stonehill career ranked 29th on the program's career scoring list with 1,172 points, adding 508 rebounds, 152 assists, 51 steals and 63 blocked shots in 103 career games played.
- Burnett had a steal tonight to extend his streak to 37-straight games dating back to last season with at least one steal. He finishes the season with 88 thefts – the most by a Stonehill player since the NCAA started tracking the statistic in 1992-93.
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