Wagner upsets Merrimack Photo Credit: ESPN2 Photo Credit: ESPN2
ArticlesCollege BasketballFeaturedBy Arthur Weinstein on

Basketball fans are going to be hearing a lot about the Wagner Seahawks in the next week or so.

While many fans probably couldn’t locate the Wagner Seahawks’ home on a map (the tiny college is on Staten Island in New York City), the Seahawks were social media darlings after upsetting the heavily favored Merrimack Warriors, 54-47, in the NEC Championship Tuesday night.

The win earns the Seahawks their first NCAA Tournament bid since 2003, and only the second since the program started in 1965.

The Seahawks were the NEC’s No. 6 seed and 7.5 point underdogs against No. 2 seed Merrimack (21-12). But Wagner got 22 points from junior guard Tahron Allen and eight points and 12 rebounds from forward Keyontae Lewis to score the upset.

The Cinderella story gets even better when you consider Wagner had only seven healthy players, a theme this season. Three starters played the entire 40 minutes Tuesday night.

The NCAA bid is a tribute to head coach Donald Copeland. The former Seton Hall star, who played pro basketball in Europe and Puerto Rico, has his team peaking at just the right time.

Wagner will likely be underdogs in their opening game, even if it’s a First Four game. But as the NCAA Tournament has shown more and more in recent years, even the biggest underdogs have a chance. No. 16 seed Fairleigh Dickinson proved that last year with a huge upset over No. 1 Purdue. Coincidentally, FDU is located only about 30 miles from Wagner.

But Tuesday night, there was no stopping the Wagner bandwagon on X (formerly Twitter).


[Photo Credit: ESPN2]

About Arthur Weinstein

Arthur spends his free time traveling around the U.S. to sporting events, state and national parks, and in search of great restaurants off the beaten path.

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