Feb. 24, 2006

Box Score

Staten Island, NY - Wagner fell to visiting LIU 75-60 at the Spiro Sports Center as the Blackbirds connected on 15 three-point field goals. The loss knocks the Seahawks out of Northeast Conference (NEC) Tournament contention as they moved to 12-14 overall and 5-12 in the league. The Blacks improved to 11-15 on the year and 8-9 in the NEC as they secured a spot int eh upcoming league playoffs.

Junior Durell Vinson (Vineland, NJ / St. Augustine's Prep) produced his 12th double-double of the season with 16 points and 12 rebounds while senior DeEarnest McLemore (Cary, NC / Cary) scored 14 points in his final home game at Wagner.

With the game tied at 11-11 at 13:59 in the first, LIU blitzed the Seahawks making four straight three-pointers over the next four minutes as part of a 14-0 run that gave them a comfortable 25-11 lead. Wagner would fall behind by as many as 17, but cut the deficit back to nine (39-30) before heading in the locker room trailing 41-30.

The Blackbirds would miss their first four shot from beyond the arc, but hit eight of their next nine as they made 11-20 from three in the first half.

Junior Matt Vitale (Brooklyn, NY / St. Edmund's Prep) opened the second stanza with a three for Wagner to pull them back to within 11, but LIU would stay hot from the outside. The Blackbirds drilled three, three-pointers as part of a 13-4 stretch to push the lead back to 17.

Vinson then paced a 12-4 run with six points to put the Seahawks back down by nine at 58-49 with 10:48 remaining. The Wagner shooting then went haywire as the team misfired on their next five shots from the field and next four shots from the foul line in the next six minutes. LIU held an 11-0 margin during the drought to put the game away.

Along with Vinson and McLemore, Vitale was also in double figures with 11 points. Wagner shot 38.5 percent from the floor, but made just 3-15 attempts from three. The Seahawks did have a 45-41 lead in rebounding.

James Williams had a game high 17 points for LIU, including five three pointers. Eugune Kotorobai came off the bench to hit three, three-pointers for 11 points. For the game the Blackbirds made 15-32 from three (.469) and shot 43.8 percent overall for the game.

Wagner ends the season at Mount St. Mary's at 7:00 pm on Monday.

~ wagnerathletics.com ~