By Max Dickstein
The dance continues for Wagner’s magnificent seven and their fans back home in Staten Island.
Despite the quiet of spring break and chilly temperatures, more than 75 Wagner students filled the Manzulli Boardroom in Foundation Hall to watch their Seahawks dominate Howard University from the opening minutes before surviving to win their first-round NCAA Tournament contest in Dayton, Ohio, 71-68.
The reward from the Seahawks and their fans after the program’s maiden March Madness victory? A Thursday afternoon showdown with top-seeded University of North Carolina (2:45 p.m. on CBS), the pre-eminent college basketball program playing in Tar Heel-friendly Charlotte.
 More Seahawk fans celebrate off-campus at Kettle BlackÂAt a popular sports bar about a mile from campus, students, staffers and alumni cheered the Seahawks to their mega-win on Tuesday night.
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On Tuesday, watch party goers watched Wagner jump out to a 38-27 halftime edge led by 13 first-half points from Melvin Council Jr., whose fierce forays to the basket set the tone for a squad playing with just seven scholarship players due to numerous long-term injuries. Â
“He’s like a gazelle,” Malia Mpondo, a sophomore power forward for the women’s basketball team, said of Council, who finished with a game-high 21 points as well as 7 assists and 5 rebounds.Â
As students dined on sliders, pizza, and pretzels provided by Wagner staff, nervous excitement permeated the room as the second half began. “We’re good. We just need to be consistent,” Maxime Ricci ’25 said appraisingly.Â
Wagner (17-15) continued its dominant play for most of the second half, swelling its lead to 13 on a Keyontae Lewis layup with 4:28 remaining that made it 67-54.Â
That's when Howard then used a trapping defense to create three Wagner turnovers and Bison shooters sharpened their accuracy, eventually shrinking the Wagner lead to just one point, 69-68, on a layup with 18 seconds left. At her seat in the Manzulli Boardroom, Elise Fujita ’25 kept her face partially covered by her hoodie as she and other anxious Wagner fans watched the lead nearly disappear.
After Howard fouled, Julian Brown sank two pressure-packed free throws with 14 seconds remaining to give the Seahawks a 71-68 lead. In a frantic final possession, Howard attempted three 3-point shots in the final seven seconds, missing each. Wagner hung on. Cheers rocked the boardroom.
The upstart Seahawks had earned the right to measure themselves against Atlantic Coast Conference powerhouse North Carolina (27-7).
Led by Head Coach Donald Copeland, who notched his first NCAA Tournament win as head coach after four previous appearances as a player and an assistant, the men’s basketball team will bring momentum from toppling the top three seeds in the Northeast Conference tournament to reach the NCAA Tournament, and now the back-to-back Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference champion Howard (18-17).
The tough-nosed Seahawks will be looking to reverse a lopsided trend in Wagner vs. North Carolina matchups this year. In a three-game baseball series last month, the host Tar Heels swept Wagner in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. And in men’s lacrosse on March 12, the visiting Tar Heels topped Wagner at Hameline Field.Â
No matter, said Ricci, the distance runner from Bordeaux, France.
“I’m confident about my guys,” he said.
Read more at Wagner Athletics.
