NEC FINALS: FDU 58 – Wagner 52

Wagner’s Cinderella glass slippers didn’t have high enough heels.

The 4-inch advantage at center was glaring, and Fairleigh Dickinson coach Tom Green exploited it, straight into his fourth shot at his first NCAA tournament victory next week.

Time after time, FDU forced the ball low to 7-foot Italian native Andrea Crosariol, and time after time, points followed, a game-high 18 from a player who scored two total in his last two games. The Northeast Conference championship also followed, as did its automatic NCAA bid.

“His offensive explosion, I don’t know where that was all season, but I’m glad it happened tonight,” Green said after Crosariol led the Knights (20-12) to the 58-52 victory. “The way he started, we definitely wanted to get the ball to him.”

Crosariol opened the scoring with a lay-up, tapped in his own tap, then finished an alley-oop for the 12-11 lead that put FDU ahead for good. As he picked himself off the floor, he mugged into the camera then flexed his bicep, seeming bravado from a sophomore averaging 7.5 points per game. It proved to be prophecy.

“When I need to, I’ll shoot,” Crosariol said.

It’s likely to be needed next week, but it helped last night that Wagner didn’t have a player over 6-8, and that was ailing center Sean Munson.

Wagner’s Cinderella run ended after going 11-2 in its final 13 for a 13-17 season, victims of weak shooting and the lack of size in the middle.

“If you said Gord Klaiber would go 3-for-16 and Tamien Trent 2-for-10, I’d have thought we’d had a great chance to win the basketball game,” Wagner coach Mike Deane said. “Our plan was to take away their key players and we did that.”

Except that the big guy took it over. He opened the second half with decisive points, and although Wagner pulled within two with 1:50 left, the Seahawks couldn’t survive Mensah Peterson’s 3-pointer, what Deane called the “dagger.”