Feb. 6, 2006

Box Score

Staten Island, NY - Wagner College was upended by visiting Monmouth University in a 74-58 loss earlier tonight in the Spiro Sports Center.

Junior center Durell Vinson (Vineland, NJ / St. Augustine's Prep) recorded his 11th double-double of the season, but it was a 19 point, 11 rebound performance by the Hawks 7'2", 320 pound John Bunch that proved to be the difference.

The Seahawks (10-10, 3-8), now losers of four straight, grabbed an early 8-7 lead following a put back lay-in from sophomore James Ulrich (Mt. Laurel, NJ / Camden Catholic). Monmouth (12-11, 9-3), then went on a 13-4 run, behind 11 points from Bunch to secure a 20-12 lead with 10 minutes left in the opening half.

Consecutive Wagner three's from junior Matt Vitale (Brooklyn, NY / St. Edmund's Prep) and freshman Joey Mundweiler (Olathe, KS / Olathe East) would bring the deficit to 29-27 at 2:11 before halftime, but seven unanswered by Monmouth moved the margin back to nine where it remained heading into the locker room (38-31).

In the second half the Hawks, winners of three straight, used a 17-4 stretch to open the game up. With Wagner trailing 41-33 following a Vinson bucket, Monmouth used the run to jumped ahead 58-37 with 10:57 remaining and put the game away.

Mundweiler connected on his fourth three of the game at 4:37 closing the gap to 64-50, but it was not enough as the Hawks went on to the victory.

Senior DeEarnest McLemore (Cary, NC / Cary) had 12 points along with Mundweiler in addition to his eight assists. The Seahawks managed just 36.5 percent from the floor, including a 28.1 (9-32) percent output in the second half. The struggles continued from three as the team shot 5-21 (23.8%), despite Mundweiler's shooting 4-6.

Dejan Delic, Marques Alston, and Whitney Coleman all had 10 points a piece for Monmouth which had a huge 49-34 rebound advantage against the top rebounding team in the NEC. The Hawks shot 46.2 percent for the game, and 51.7 in the first half.

Wagner returns to action on Thursday as they travel to St. Francis (NY) for a 7:00 pm tip off.

~ wagnerathletics.com ~