Peter Kiss is the nation's leading scorer and he had 34 points
Peter Kiss had 34 points and a season-high five steals and top seed Bryant registered a 70-43 win over Wagner for the first Northeast Conference tournament championship in the program's history on Tuesday night.
But the game got spoiled due to a fight in the stands between the fans. With 4:37 to play and the Bulldogs leading 68-32, play stalled for about 30 minutes. A small portion of the seats, mostly occupied by Wagner fans, sat next to Bryant's student square and the contentious atmosphere led to a scuffle. Neither player or coach made it into the stands, although Wagner's Will Martinez attempted to pull out of the game and several players had to stop.
Bryant (22–9) set a Division I program record for wins this season and secured his first NCAA Tournament berth since beginning the transition from Division II in 2008.
Kiss, the nation's leading scorer at 24.7 per game, made 13 of 23 off the field and 4 of 5 from 3-point range and finished with six rebounds, three assists and five steals. The senior has scored at least 25 points in 13 of his last 17 matches and has scored at least 30 points 10 times this season.
Raccoon Rogers, led by No. 2 Seed Wagner (21-6), had 13 points shooting 6-of-8. The rest of the Seahawks shot 22% (11 out of 50) from the field. Alex Morales, who averages 18.2 points per game and was recently named NEC Player of the Year for the second consecutive season, scored three points for Wagner shooting 0-of-16.
Charles Pride had 13 points for Bryant and a career-high tying 17 rebounds.
Kiss was hit with a shot by Morales and then Rogers created a lay-up to give the Seahawks a 2-0 lead in 38 seconds, but Bryant took 36 of the next 40. Pride did back-to-back lay-ups to give the Bulldogs a good lead about 2 minutes later, before Kiss took over - shots into the lane, hitting contested 3s, alley throws and catches.
Kiss scored 17 points in 11 1/2 minutes to make it 36-6, when he took the second route for a two-handed dunk with 4:44 left in the first half.