Wagner Downs Cagers, 82-73

Wagner basketball was born in a spacious manger by the name of Madison Square Garden on the night of November 24, 1978 and the midwife at courtside was a personable young coach by the name of P.J. Carlesimo. On that night the tiny school in Staten Island defeated nationally ranked Alabama in the Joe Lapchick Memorial Tournament by a score of 86-74.

Last night, in the considerably smaller playpen of the IAB, Wagner's infant basketball program threw away its swaddling clothes. The Seahawks defeated Harvard 82-73, outscoring the Crimson 44-29 in a second half comeback.

Three years ago Wagner was a Division Three college with an innocuous basketball program. Then the decision was made to move up to Division One. Carlesimo was hired and he brought players named Ciampaglia, Aponte, and DiDonna to the Grymes Hill gymnasium framed by the span of the Verrezano Bridge.

"I think they felt they needed a young coach who wouldn't mind sticking around a few years until he built a winner," Carlesimo said last night.

Carlesimo started out in college ball by riding the bench on a Fordham team in 1968-69 that was captained by Harvard coach Frank McLaughlin. After graduating, he served as an assistant coach for three years at Fordham. Last night, however, McLaughlin had to take a back seat to Carlesimo.

In the first half, Harvard's tart passing produced a slew of layups underneath. Center Dave Coatsworth labored under the glass for 11 points while guard Tom Mannix rippled four jumpers from the corner, which is the A-1 shooting position for the hot-handed sophomore. The cagers were ahead by 42-32 toward the end of the half and the gap would have been bigger if not for the 27 turnovers Harvard committed during the course of the evening.

In the second half, though, the Seahawks began to shut down the lane and caught fire from outside, shooting 59 per cent as compared to 45 per cent in the first half.

Bobby Allen kept the hoopsters in the game through the second half, in which he scored 12 of his 14 points. In a three minute span the snub-nosed junior scored on a pair of jumpers, a tip-in, and converted a three-point play to keep the Crimson tied at 64-64 with 9:35 left.

Wagner was now playing wide-open, hard rebounding basketball, though, as the Crimson press proved ineffectual. Ruben Jimenez picked up a three-point play for a 71-66 Wagner edge with seven minutes remaining and the cagers were never to contend for the lead again.

Surrounded by his carefree and elated team after the win Carlesimo noted "we weren't looking at this game for one of our wins this year. We've come full circle. We beat Harvard and we beat Alabama and we're going to get well known."

The win over the Crimson Tide in the annual Thanksgiving tournament bruited the name of Wagner throughout the basketball world. "It was a great opportunity for us," say Carlesimo, "it was such a big upset that both AP and UPI picked it up nationally."

After all these years in the ranks of the unknown, though, success caught one Wagner team a little off its guard. One of the assistant coaches walked out of the deserted IAB, paused for a second in surprise, and mused "Hey, this is a famous place. It's been a great win." WAGNER  FG  FT  REB  PF  AST  TP DiDonna  6-10  2-3  6  3  1  14 Lewis  5-11  0-0  5  3  0  10 Dillard  0-0  0-1  2  1  3  0 Aponte  8-13  1-2  6  4  3  17 Jimonez  2-4  1-1  1  2  1  5 Ciampaglio  9-18  4-7  3  2  5  22 Johnson  6-14  2-2  4  3  6  14 Totals  36-70  10-16  35  18  19  82 FG percentage 51: FT percentage 63: Team rebounds 8: Turnovers 16 HARVARD  FG  FT  REB  PF  AST  TP Mannix  6-13  0-0  1  3  2  12 Coatsworth  7-11  1-2  9  4  2  15 Allen  6-12  2-3  6  2  3  14 Harris  4-10  1-3  7  3  1  9 Hooft  4-12  3-4  6  3  0  11 Fine  2-3  2-2  1  4  10  6 Taylor  0-3  0-0  0  3  5  0 Fleming  3-4  0-0  0  0  0  6 Totals  32-68  9-14  37  22  23  73 FG percentage 47: FT percentage 64; Team rebounds 7: Turnovers 27.