Wagner Basketball: Seahawks stun ranked Huskies

The season isn’t even past it’s first slate of games and fans already have an upset thanks to Wagner basketball.

Connecticut entered the season as almost everyone’s favorite in the American Athletic Conference. UConn had several important players returning from their 2015-16 NCAA bid and added one of the nation’s best recruiting classes.

That didn’t matter much in a shocking defeat at the hands of the Wagner Seahawks, 67-58, at Gampel Pavilion. The top team in the Northeast Conference slowed the pace down to their liking and won enough of the small battles to take a huge opening night win.

Senior forward Mike Aaman and junior shooting guard Romone Saunders paced the Seahawks with 15 points each. Point guard Corey Henson chipped in with 10 points and reserve Devin Liggeons had eight. Aaman also led all players with nine rebounds.

In total, Wagner shot 38 percent from the field (36 percent from deep) and hit 78 percent of their free throws. It was a solid all-around game for the team from Staten Island.

On the other side, UConn saw VCU transfer Terry Larrier lead the way with 19 points on 6-of-12 shooting, along with seven rebounds. Former high school All-American Alterique Gilbert came off the bench to add 14 points as the only other Husky in double-figures.

Sophomore guard Jalen Adams was also productive with nine points and led all players with five assists. But Adams also struggled with his efficiency as he shot 4-of-15 from the field. UConn shot 36 percent from the field (just 32 percent from three) and 75 percent from the free throw line.

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The stats were very close, but Wagner did the little things just a little bit better on Friday.

The Seahawks edged Connecticut in rebounds (37-33), assists (13-9), steals (6-4) and personal fouls (16-20). They did give up 12 turnovers compared to just nine for UConn, but the slight advantages enjoyed in other categories meant Wagner didn’t beat themselves.

I expect coach Kevin Ollie to make some big adjustments before their next tip off against Northeastern, who comes off a solid 87-77 over Boston University. But the real story is Wagner, who now looks like a team that could win the NEC and potentially steal a game in the Big Dance.

The Seahawks returned four of their top five scorers from last year’s team that earned 22 regular season wins. Aamon and Henson are studs, while Sanders could take another step forward in 2016-17.

This is a huge win for a small school from a small conference, however, it says a lot about UConn too. The Huskies have the talent to make a deep run in March, but youth definitely hurt them on Friday night.

The team needs much more from their starting front court duo of Amida Brimah and Kenton Facey. If those two can’t step up as expected, look for sophomore Steven Enoch and freshman Vance Jackson to challenge for playing time.

For Wagner, the focus should be becoming more efficient after putting up 12 turnovers to 13 assists.

Next: Three things we learned from Arizona versus Michigan State

These are two teams that could make the 68-team field in March. The Seahawks don’t get another power conference opponent until Providence on December 17th, but this is a massive win for the program.