Feb. 10, 2007

Box Score

Fairfield, CT -Wagner College lost a close 81-79 contest to Sacred Heart University at the Pitt Center in Northeast Conference action today. The defeat puts the Seahawks at 6-7 in the NEC and 9-15 overall while the Pioneers improved to 8-5 in the league and 12-12 on the year.

A game high 22 points from junior Mark Porter (Atlantic City, NJ / St. Augustine's Prep), left him with 999 career points, but it was not enough as the Seahawks split the season series with Sacred Heart.

The Wagner offense started off slow as the Pioneers built up a 32-21 lead with 6:42 remaining the opening period. The Seahawks then rallied from behind the arc hitting 7-10 from three after missing the first five three-point attempts. With the team down 11, sophomore Joey Mundweiler (Olathe, KS / Olathe East) scored five straight points to start off a 17-6 Seahawks run. The run was capped off with a three from the left wing by sophomore Justin Drummond (Baltimore, MD / McDonogh) to even the count at 38-38 as neither team would score in the final two minutes of the half.

Carrying the momentum over into the second half, junior James Ulrich (Mt. Laurel, NJ / Camden Catholic), gave Wagner their first lead of the game with a pair free throws in the opening minute. Ulrich's charity shots begin a back an forth second period that featured eight lead changes and five ties.

The Seahawks would take their largest lead at 51-47 with 15 minutes left after four straight points from Ulrich who finished with 17 for the night including 15 in the second half. Five minutes later Sacred Heart used a three point play from Henley and a three from Luke Granto to go up seven at 68-61. The lead would remain just out of the grasp for Wagner despite baskets from Porter that cut the lead to one (73-72), (77-76) on two separate occasion in the final five minutes. The Seahawks were set up with a chance to tie the game after Henley miss two free throws with 15 second remaining, but a costly turnover sealed their fate.

Sophomore Jamal Smith (Baltimore, MD / Towson Catholic) also scored 17 points in the game and kept Wagner in the game with 12 first half points. The Seahawks held a 34-32 edge in rebounds and shot 43.9 percent from the game. Wagner ended the night hitting 10-25 (40 percent) from three.

Sacred Heart was led by 19 points off the bench from Henley who shot 9-14 from the foul line. Three other players reached double figures for the Pioneers which hit 50 percent from the field.

Wagner starts a Western Pennsylvania road swing on Thursday night at Robert Morris.

~wagnerathletics.com ~