FINAL STATS

Staten Island, NY – Fifth-year senior forward Llew Radford (Newport News, VA/ Heritage) poured in 23 points, including the go-ahead layup with 39 seconds left to play, while grabbing a career-high 14 rebounds and fifth-year senior guard Joey Mundweiler (Olathe, KS/ Olathe East) buried a host of big shots down the stretch during a 17-point outing to lift Wagner to an 80-78 come-from-behind victory over St. Francis (NY). 

With the win, the Seahawks improve to 8-4, 1-1 in the NEC while the Terriers fall to 3-10 overall, 1-2 in the conference. 

Mundweiler sored eight of his 17 points in a 51-second span late in the game to help carry Wagner to victory.

Trailing by as many as 12 in the first half, and by eight with nine minutes left in the game, Wagner took its first lead of the game since it was 4-3 in the early going on a Mundweiler top of the key jumper with 6:36 left that gave the Seahawks a 65-64 lead. The lead was short-lived as St. Francis (NY) answered with a three-pointer from Ricky Cadell with 6:14 left to put the Terriers back on top, 67-65. 

The final furious six minutes featured three ties, three lead changes and a series of wild back and forth and end-to-end exchanges. After Radford knotted the game at 69-69 by making one of two free throws with 4:25 to go, St. Francis (NY) reeled off a quick 5-0 run capped by a three-pointer by Stefan Perunicic with 2:54 left which gave the Terriers a 74-69 lead. Wagner fought back on a three-pointer by Mundweiler with 2:31 left which was countered by a John Gooden layup that gave the Terriers a 76-72 lead.  Mundweiler then drilled a 15-foot baseline jumper with 1:48 to cut it to 76-74 and then drilled a his fourth three-pointerof the game  with 1:40 left to put the Seahawks back on top 77-76. 

Gooden sank two free throws with 1:09 remaining to give the Terriers their last lead of the game at 78-77. Wagner answered with a Radford layup at the 39-second mark to put Wagner up 79-78. Freshman guard Chris Martin (Sicklerville, NJ/ Apex Academies) then came up with a loose ball and was fouled in transition with 27 seconds left. After Martin made one of two free throws to make it 80-78, St. Francis (NY) had its chances to tie or take the lead as they got off three shots in the final 11 seconds. The final frantic sequence began when Perunicic misfired on a three-pointer with 11 seconds left. Gooden dug out the offensive rebound and kicked it to Cadell whose fall-away three-pointer came up short. Gooden then grabbed the final rebound of the game and missed a floater in the lane from the right side with one second left as Wagner hung on for the win. 

Martin finished with a career-high 13 points for the Seahawks who shot a blistering 67% in the second half and 49% for the game. The Terriers were led by their big man Gooden, who scored 19 points on 8-of-9 shooting and added nine rebounds. Cadell and Perunicic chipped in with 14 points apiece for St. Francis (NY) which shot 52% from the floor. 

St. Francis (NY) took a 36-34 lead into the locker room at halftime The Terriers busted out of the gate quickly, building a 13-6 lead on a trio of three-pointers in the first five minutes. Wagner built a 12-point lead on two occasions, at 23-11 and again at 25-13. Trailing 31-20, Wagner closed the half with a 14-5 run over the final 4:43 to make it a two point game at halftime as pumped in three jumpers from beyond the arc which gave the Seahawks momentum heading into the half. 

Wagner has a quick turnaround as the Seahawks make the short trek across the Hudson River to meet Fairleigh Dickinson on Monday night in a 7:30 pm NEC tilt.