Jan. 5, 2008
Final Stats
Fairfield, CT - The Wagner Seahawks moved into sole possession of first place in the Northeast Conference (NEC) with a hard-fought 70-63 win over preseason NEC favorite Sacred Heart at the Pitt Center. With the win the Seahawks move to 10-4 and 3-0 in the league while avenging last year's 32-point loss in the 2007 NEC Quarterfinals to the Pioneers. Sacred Heart is now 5-9 and 2-1 in the NEC.
The Pioneers took their only lead of the second half after Gene Pettway's two free throws capped a 6-0 run that put the Pioneers up 57-54 with 6:19 to go.
From that point on it was all Wagner.
The Seahawks immediately answered with eight straight points in just over a minute. Senior Durell Vinson (Vineland, NJ / St. Augustine Prep) tied the game with an old-fashioned three-point play. Junior Justin Drummond (Baltimore, MD / McDonogh) then reclaimed the lead with a three pointer off a pass from classmate Llewchean Radford (Newport News, VA / Heritage). Drummond returned the favor on the next possession feeding Radford for a lay-up, making it 62-57 with 4:59 to go.
Down but not out the Pioneers cut the lead to one at 62-61 with 2:51 remaining on a jumper and a pair of free throws. Drummond extended the lead back out to three on an ally-oop dunk off one of Mark Porter's (Sr., Atlantic City, NJ / St. Augustine Prep) game-high nine assists. Wagner had a chance to put the game away but missed the front end of two one and ones. With 13 seconds remaining and the Pioneers still alive, Drew Shubik hit a pair of free throws to again cut the lead to one. Porter was then fouled and calmly sank both free throws. On the ensuing possession, Sacred Heart's Corey Hassan's three point attempt missed badly and Vinson, like his high school teammate Porter, hit both free throws with one second remaining, quelling any chance the Pioneers had for a rally.
Vinson had another dominating performance with his sixth double-double of the year, posting game highs in points (22) and rebounds (11) off the bench. He was 8-11 from the floor and an efficient 6-10 from the line. Junior Jamal Smith (Baltimore, MD / Towson Catholic) chipped in with 17 points, highlighted by 3-6 shooting from beyond the arc, while Radford rounded out the double-figure scorers with 10 points, on 5-5 shooting, with six rebounds.
Senior James Ulrich (Mt. Laurel, NJ / Camden Catholic) added 10 rebounds to lead a dominating Wagner-effort on the glass as the Seahawks out-rebounded the Pioneers 42-28, including 14-7 on the offensive glass.
Wagner shot 48.2 percent (27-56) from the floor, including 50.0 percent (6-12) from beyond the arc. The Seahawk defense put the lockdown on Pioneer shooters, limiting them to just 23.7 percent (5-23) shooting from three-point range while forcing 22 turnovers.
The first half was a back-and-forth affair as neither team could assume more then a six-point lead. There were four lead changes and three ties before the Seahawks earned a 34-32 halftime lead on a lay-up at the buzzer from Vinson.
Hassan's 13 points off the bench and Brice Brooks' 12 points led the way for the Pioneers.
Wagner is next in action on Thursday, Jan. 10 when the Green & White head to tri-state rival Monmouth for a 7:00 pm tilt.
