College Basketball

Wagner advances to NEC semifinals

For the third straight year, Central Connecticut guard Kyle Vinales saw his season end in Staten Island.

As the clock counted down to an already-determined conclusion of the Northeast Conference Tournament quarterfinal — an 83-59 loss to second-seeded Wagner at Spiro Sports Center on Wednesday night — the junior guard congratulated senior Kenneth Ortiz, who is heading to his third consecutive semifinal, still looking to send the Seahawks to their first title game since 2005.

A scene so familiar looked so very different to Vinales.

“[Ortiz] sounded like he was hungry for it. He was like, ‘We got to get it. It’s my last year,’ ” said Vinales. “The main core of their guys are all seniors and I just feel like they’re hungrier for it this year. Last year, they knew they had another year. They obviously wanted to win, but I feel like this year they want it more.”

Wagner (19-11, 13-4) will host No. 4 Mount St. Mary’s in the semifinals on Saturday, following the Mountaineers’ 72-71 win over St. Francis Brooklyn, which required a 17-point second-half comeback and last-second 3-pointer.

Ortiz, who was recently named the league’s first-ever three-time Defensive Player of the Year, matched a season-high with 21 points, as the Seahawks won their ninth straight game, playing their best at the best time.

It isn’t coincidence. It is necessity.

“It’s just a lit fire inside that’s eating us,” said Ortiz. “In order for us to get over that, we got to get past the semifinals. The way everything’s been coming along, we’re so focused we refuse to lose. That’s what we got to have going into this game.”

Wagner led nearly the entire game, in an often ugly, but always effective performance, in which it shot 35.5 percent from the field, but forced 15 turnovers and grabbed 24 offensive rebounds.

While Vinales led Central Connecticut with 20 points (11-19, 7-10), Orlando Parker’s 13 points and 12 rebounds set the tone in the second half, with Marcus Burton’s back-to-back 3-pointers midway through the half giving Wagner a 55-44 lead which would never again be threatened.

Wagner’s smothering league-leading defense held the Blue Devils to less than 34 percent shooting from the field, leading coach Howie Dickenmann to believe he might see the Seahawks again soon:

“I wouldn’t be a bit surprised if in the end, they were going to be on TV on Selection Sunday,” said Dickenmann.

For Wagner’s program-changing senior class, this is the last opportunity for that opportunity.

The starting quartet of Ortiz, Latif Rivers, Orlando Parker and Naofall Folahan, who’ve set a school-record with 73 wins in their four years, initially joined a team coming off a five-win campaign.

Contending was the goal. Now, only championships suffice.

“I think maybe in years past I think we were really thrilled about the position that we were in, knowing where the program came from when we took it over, but right now I think we got a really focused group,” said second-year Wagner coach Bashir Mason, in his fourth year with the team. “Over the next day or two, I’m going to figure out something that has to be different about us going into this game because we’ve been here three times now and come up empty. Something’s got to be different about us.”


Robert Morris 60, Fairleigh Dickinson 53

Lucky Jones scored 19 points and Anthony Myers-Pate added 10 as regular-season champion and top seed Robert Morris defeated eighth-seeded Fairleigh Dickinson. The Colonials (20-12) will be home again for a semifinal matchup against No. 6 seed St. Francis (Pa.) on Saturday.