Staten Island, NY – The Wagner College men's basketball team displayed plenty of grittiness and heart in cutting a 19-point second-half deficit to five before dropping a 71-61 exhibition game to McMaster University of Canada.

McMaster improves its record to 9-0 while the young Seahawks were playing their first contest vs. outside competition. Sophomore guard Chris Martin (Sicklervile, NJ/ Apex Academies) led Wagner in scoring with 14 points. Josh Thompson (Richland, NJ/St. Augustine Prep), an athletic 6-4 wing player and one of six freshmen who saw playing time, narrowly missed a double-double, finishing with 11 points and nine rebounds.

Freshmen guard Ryan Conrad (Charlotte, NC/ Providence Day) and Danny Mundweiler (Overland Park, KS/ Olateh East) added nine and six points, respectively for the Seahawks as six of Wagner's seven freshmen saw action in the game. Of Wagner's 14 players, 12 are underclassmen with forward Doug Elwell (Staten Island, NY/ Monsignor Farrell) and center Michael Orock (Hoboken, NJ/ Hoboken) being the only two seniors.

“I thought we found out some things about our team today and overall it was a very positive experience for our guys,” said head coach Mike Deane. “We played a team that was playing its ninth game of the season and they've won them all. We have a lot of work to do but I thought this was a good starting point for us and we got what we wanted to out of the game and learned some things about our team.”

McMaster was led by 6-7 forward Keenan Jeppesen who poured in 31 points while grabbing 11 rebounds while Scott Laws added 12 points for the Marauders. McMaster led by a 29-24 count at halftime and ballooned the lead to 48-29 with 13:59 to go. Wagner then countered with a 14-0 run as Conrad hit two three-pointers during the spurt while Mundweiler and Elwell added one each in trimming the deficit to 48-42 with 9:39 to play.

With 42 seconds left to play, Martin drained a three-pointer to draw Wagner to within 66-61 but the Seahawks then called a timeout it did not have, resulting in a technical and two Jeppesen free throws which pushed the lead back to 68-61.

Wagner will host another exhibition game on Sunday, Nov. 8 vs. Pace University in a 2:00 pm start. The first game of the 2009-2010 season takes place on Friday, Nov. 13 at Lafayette in a 6:00 pm tip.

NOTES – The Seahawks were without the services of junior center Clayfell Harris (London, England/Bridgton Acdemy) and freshman forward Phillip Roth (Dallas, TX/Richardson), who are both nursing minor injuries. 

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