Recap by Keith Burdette
No. 7 Central Connecticut State Blue Devils 81, No. 2 St. Francis NY Terriers 68
The first game of the day also produced the first upset. The Blue Devils beat the Terriers 81-68 to exact revenge on the Terriers first round upset of CCSU in the first round of last year’s tournament. An early 8-8 tie was snapped by a 9-0 Blue Devil run after which they never trailed. CCSU built a lead as big as 17 in the first half before St. Francis cut it to nine at the break. The lead was chipped to five in the second half before CCSU built the lead back to seventeen to ice the game.
Ron Robinson was one of five players in double figures with fourteen points. He also added fourteen rebounds, including the 1000th of his career. Two freshmen also had big outings, Javier Mojica had fifteen points to lead the Blue Devils and Obie Nwadike had thirteen points and eleven rebounds. John Quintana had 25 points but it wasn’t enough to get the Terriers out of the first round.
No. 3 Fairleigh Dickinson Knights 69, No. 6 Wagner Seahawks 67
The Knights jumped out to a seven point lead in the first half but Wagner answered with a 20-8 run to gain the lead late in the first half and the seesaw action was well under way. The score was tied at 37 at halftime with both teams getting big contributions from the bench. The second half was as tightly contested and in the final five minutes, the lead changed hands six times. The Knights took a 66-65 lead with just over a minute to play when Marcus Whitaker hit a bucket. They built the lead up to four before Courtney Pritchard hit a lay-up for the Seahawks to cut the lead down to two. Chad Timberlake then missed two free throws to give Wagner one lost shot. Pritchard drew a foul to go to the line with four seconds to go but missed the first free throw. He then intentionally missed the second free throw and game away with the rebound but missed the game-tying shot to give Fairleigh Dickinson the win.
Tamien Trent led the Knights with seventeen points off the bench and Marcus Whitaker contributed sixteen points and ten assists. Nigel Wyatte had 21 points and sixteen rebounds to lead the Seahawks. Free throw shooting plagued both teams as both teams missed key shots in the final minutes. Before the Knights went up by four, Pritchard missed two free throws that would have tied the game. On the day, Wagner shot 58.4 percent while Fairleigh Dickinson shot only 62 percent from the line. The big difference in the game was taking care of the basketball; the Knights forced 16 turnovers while committing only seven of their own.
No. 1 Monmouth Hawks 64, No. 8 Mount Saint Mary’s Mountaineers 52
The Hawks defeated the Mount 64-52, avenging a loss earlier in the week which propelled the Mountaineers into the NEC tournament. Monmouth led the entire game and built a ten point lead at halftime. The lead reached nineteen in the second half before the Mount made one last ditch effort to get back into the game but couldn’t get any closer than five. Blake Hamilton led the Hawks with 19 points and nine rebounds while Dwayne Byfield scored sixteen points. Kiel Butler led all scorers with 20 points for the Mount but his team shot only 30 percent from the field to do them in.
No. 4 Robert Morris Colonials 58, No. 5 St. Francis PA Red Flash 43
After St. Francis took a 12-10 lead in the first half, the Colonials used a 19-4 run to take control of the game. The lead was ten at halftime and RMU cruised the 58-43 win. Maurice Carter scored 26 points to lead all scorers. Everyone for the Red Flash struggled mightily. Jason Osborne had scored 28 points in a win over Robert Morris earlier in the season but scored only ten points in this contest. Darshan Luckey and Erick Wills were each held to 3-11 shooting and single digits in points. The Colonial’s Aaron Thomas was the only other player in double figures with ten points in this very defensive game.
