DAYTON, Ohio — Wagner kicked off March Madness with the first NCAA Tournament win in program history, getting 21 points from Melvin Council Jr. and holding off a late rally by Howard to win 71-68 in the First Four on Tuesday night.
In the late game, Joel Scott had 23 points and 11 rebounds as Colorado State won an NCAA Tournament game for the first time in 11 years, blowing out Virginia 67-42.
Wagner 71, Howard 68
The Northeast Conference champion Seahawks (17-15) advanced as the No. 16 seed in the West Region and will play top seed North Carolina on Thursday.
“To have the first NCAA Tournament victory in school history, it’s huge,” second-year Wagner coach Donald Copeland said. “It’s huge for the school, the program and these guys, man, that have gone through so much, man, to continue to build and continue to write their own season the way they needed to.”
Howard trailed by 17 points early in the second half but went on a late 14-2 run, closing within 69-68 on Bryce Harris’ layup with 18 seconds left. After Julian Brown hit a pair of free throws for Wagner, Howard attempted three 3-pointers in the last 6 seconds but missed them all.
Brown finished with 15 points for the Seahawks, who made their only previous NCAA Tournament appearance in 2003 — one year before Copeland made the first of his two appearances in the tourney as a player for Seton Hall.
Harris and Seth Towns scored 16 points apiece for Howard (18-16), the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference champion, which was also seeking its first March Madness win. The Bison made it to the tourney for the second straight season under coach Kenny Blakeney, who won a national title as a player for Duke in 1992.
Tahron Allen’s layup with 16:42 left in the first half put Wagner ahead 7-6, and the Seahawks never trailed again. They built a 17-point lead in the first half and equaled that advantage early in the second.
Wagner shot 52.7% overall and 47.1% (8 of 17) from 3-point range while holding Howard to 38.6% from the field.
“We still were able, I think, to get three great looks at the basket,” Blakeney said. “But sometimes the basketball gods are with you and sometimes they’re not.”
Allen and Keyontae Lewis finished with 10 points apiece as all seven Seahawks who entered the game scored. Wagner had only seven players available for all of conference play because of injuries.
“Having seven players, 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.”
Three Seahawks players finished with four fouls apiece, and Wagner’s injury-depleted rotation looked gassed during Howard’s late run. But it was nothing new for the scrappy school from Staten Island.
“We go and just preach toughness every day,” Council said. “So there’s no difference.”
Council, Brown and Javier Ezquerra each played all 40 minutes for the Seahawks. Ezquerra had eight assists.
“This guy right here told me to drink a lot of water because I like to drink Gatorade,” Council said, referencing Ezquerra. “Shout-out to Javi. That’s why I don’t get tired.”
Council joined the Seahawks after two years at Monroe College, where he was a NJCAA Division I All-American and the team’s all-time leading scorer with 1,400 points.
“He’s a baller. He loves to play and compete and he lives for moments like this,” Copeland said. “That’s what you’re seeing right now is a reflection of all the work behind closed doors that he allows us to put into him, and it’s paid off.”
Wagner has a quick turnaround before facing UNC at 1:45 p.m. CT on Thursday in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Colorado State 67, Virginia 42
In addition to Joel Scott’s 23 points and 11 rebounds, Nique Clifford scored 17 points and grabbed 10 rebounds for the Rams (25-10), who advance as a No. 10 seed to play No. 7 seed Texas on Thursday.
Reece Beekman had 15 points on 4-of-16 shooting for Virginia, which hasn’t won an NCAA Tournament game since it won the national title in 2019. That stretch includes two first-round losses as a No. 4 seed.
The Cavaliers’ ugly performance ignited more debate about whether they should have made the tournament field. Although Virginia finished third in the Atlantic Coast Conference, it had just two Quad 1 wins and struggled offensively all season.
Colorado State dominated the boards and the Cavaliers couldn’t keep up, shooting 25% for the game. The Rams shot 55%, out-rebounded the Cavaliers 43-24 and scored 36 points in the paint.
Virginia finished with the second-fewest points by an ACC team in the NCAA Tournament, trailing only coach Tony Bennett’s 2017 Cavaliers squad, which lost 65-39 to Florida in the second round.
Virginia shot terribly from the beginning, with Colorado State building a 27-14 lead at the break.
The Cavaliers hit 5 of 29 shots — 17% — in the first half, failing to get a basket in the last 9:20. Beekman was 1 of 9, while Scott had 10 points for the Rams at the break.
The Rams scored the first eight points of the second half before Virginia got another basket.
Colorado State will play Texas at 5:50 p.m. CT on Thursday in Charlotte, North Carolina.
