EMMITSBURG — Senior Day carries its own emotions and atmosphere, and Saturday’s pre-game ceremonies at Mount St. Mary’s was filled with both.
But the Mountaineers were playing for more than just a successful send-off for Greg Alexander, Junior Robinson, and Chris Wray.
Jockeying for position in next week’s Northeast Conference tournament still meant something. So did making a statement against Wagner, owners of the tourney’s top seed, which had defeated MSM by 19 points earlier in the year.
A strong second half helped the Mount make such a statement, closing out the regular season with a 73-62 victory at Knott Arena.
The Mountaineers (18-13, 12-6 NEC) clinched the No. 2 seed in the tourney, meaning they’ll have a chance to play two home games next week. And they took down the top defensive team in the conference with a 20-8 run to open the second half and assume control.
“We’re here,” said Robinson, who led MSM with 22 points. “We’re ready to play. We’re locked in. We had a meeting earlier this [week] talking about how we have a championship season left. I think we’re hitting the right strides right now.”
Wagner (21-8, 14-4) couldn’t keep pace in the second half after being tied 31-31 at the break. Robinson and Seahawks guard JoJo Cooper, a fellow senior, waged an individual battle throughout most of the game — the veterans jawed at each other on numerous possessions, with Cooper doing most of the talking while guarding his 5-foot-5 counterpart.
Robinson won the scoring battle (Cooper had 18 points) and seemed to come to life in the second half by penetrating Wagner’s defense off the dribble and distributing the ball around the permieter.
“We were fine,” Robinson said of the Mount’s halftime situation. “We were in the place we needed to be.”
Robinson and Wray combined for 10 of the Mount’s first 15 points in the second half, and when Robinson found Wray along the baseline for a dunk the home team led 39-35. Wagner turned the ball over at the other end, and Wray found Bobby Planutis in the right corner for a big 3-pointer.
Wray added another dunk a few possessions later, flying in to stuff home a missed shot from Robinson with 13:45 to go, and Mount St. Mary’s led 50-39.
The Seahawks got no closer than nine points the rest of the way.
“We’ve got a game plan,” Alexander said. “It’s really just sticking to it and staying together, staying connected.”
Donald Carey, MSM’s freshman guard, netted 14 points and Wray finished with 11 points, nine rebounds, a career high six blocks, and five assists.
Planutis scored 12 points and grabbed eight rebounds.
Alexander had six points and three boards, and something else before the game — he joined Robinson and Wray, and selected family members, during the pre-game ceremony that awarded the seniors their framed jerseys.
The senior class is responsible for 67 wins, a record for such a group during the Mount’s Division I era which began in 1988.
Robinson’s career point total stands at 1,854, and he moved into third place on the Mount’s all-time list.
Romone Saunders posted a double-double for Wagner with 16 points and 17 rebounds, and the Seahawks controlled the glass with 51 boards to MSM’s 38. But they couldn’t grab enough offensive rebounds in the second half when shots stopped falling.
Wagner’s Blake Francis scored 11 points before fouling out late in the game — one of his fouls was a technical with 12:38 to go.
Officials talked to both sides a few times during breaks in the action to prevent anything from escalating, and afterward Mount coach Jamion Christian said Wagner gave his team its most physical matchup of the season.
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“We’ve got to love the physicality,” Christian said. “I thought it was a little chippy, which is like playoff basketball. We just tried to put ourselves in the mindset this week that playoff basketball is going to be like this.”
