FINAL STATS
Hamden, CT – Fifth-year senior guards Justin Drummond (Baltimore. MD/ McDonogh) and Joey Mundweiler (Olathe, KS/ Olathe East) scored 21 and 18 points, respectively to carry Wagner to a gutsy 75-66 victory over Quinnipiac.
With the win, the Seahawks clinched a winning season and now stand at 15-13 overall, 7-10 in the NEC while the Bobcats fell to 13-15 overall, 9-8 in the NEC.
A Wagner win over Monmouth in Saturday's Noon showdown in West Long Branch, NJ will lock up a seventh-place seed in the NEC tournament for the Seahawks. A loss to Monmouth will eliminate Wagner from the NEC Tournament.
After taking a 37-30 halftime lead behind Mundweiler's nine points, the Seahawks opened the second half with a 7-0 surge, started by a Mundweiler three-pointer and capped by a bucket by junior center Michael Orock (Hoboken, Nj/ Hoboken) in taking its biggest lead of the game at 44-30 with 17:23 left.
The Bobcats countered with a 15-6 run to cut the deficit to 50-45 with 11:33 remaining. Quinnipiac then outscored the Seahawks 15-10 over the next 6:59 to forge a 60-60 tie with 4:34 left on a Justin Rutty lay-up. Redshirt sophomore T.J. Czeski (Amsterdam, NY/ Amsterdam) hit both ends of a one-and-one with 4:20 left to go to make it 62-60.
After Bryan Geffen tied the game again at 62-62 on a runner in the lane with 3:55 left, Wagner went on a defining 7-1 run on a lay-up by senior forward Llew Radford (Newport News, VA/ Heritage), a jumper by fifth-year senior forward Jamal Smith (Baltimore, MD/ Towson Catholic), a three-pointer by Drummond, followed by a Drummond lay-up with 57 seconds left that made it 70-63 with 57 seconds left.
Radford finished with 10 points and seven rebounds, Smith had nine points and five rebounds, Czeski had six points including a 4of-4 effort from the line down the stretch while sophomore forward Clifton Spiller (Pleasantville, NJ/ Holy Spirit) grabbed six rebounds and center Clayfell Harris (London, England/ Bridgton Academy) came up with three big blocks.
Guard James Feldeine led Quinnipiac with 18 points while guard Bryan Geffen and power forward Justin Rutty added 14 and 13 points, respectively.
Wagner shot 48 percent from the floor while holding the Bobcats to 38 percent. Quinnipiac won the rebounding battle 39-37 while Wagner had just nine turnovers while forcing the Bobcats into 11 turnovers.
The Wagner-Monmouth game will be Senior Day for the Hawks, will mark the final game ever at Boylan Gymnasium and will be televised live at Noon on MSG.
NOTES – Mundweiler's 5-of-11 shooting night from three-point range give him 81 for the season, which is fourth on the Seahawk all-time single-season list. His 294 career three-pointers made ties him for third on the NEC all-time career list with Angel Santana of St. Francis (NY). Mundweiler's 1,220 career points moves him into 21st on the Seahawk all-time scoring list. Smith is now in 19th place on the Wagner all-time scoring list with 1,239 points. Head coach Mike Deane now has a record of 31-20 in games played in February during his six-year tenure at Wagner.
