BOX SCORE

Fairfield, CT - Wagner erased a five-point deficit with just 47 seconds remaining to force overtime before outscoring Sacred Heart 13-8 in overtime en route to a 73-68 victory at the Pitt Center. Junior Tyler Murray (Toronto, Ontario / Eastern Commerce) scored a career-high 23 points while pulling down a game-high 10 rebounds for his second double-double in three games as the Seahawks improve to 4-3 and 1-0 in the Northeast Conference (NEC) while the Pioneers fall to 1-6 and 0-2 in the NEC.

The game was an ugly affair as both teams shot under 40.0 percent while experiencing extended droughts of offensive inefficiency.

Wagner appeared to be in control midway through the second period after junior Chris Martin (Sicklerville, NJ / Apex Academies) drilled a three pointer, extending the Seahawks lead to 10 at 45-35 with just over 12 minutes to play. Sacred Heart, however, would then turn up the pressue ripping off six-straight points to draw within four at 45-41 with 8:21 to play. After Murray briefly quelled the momentum, the Pioneers busted off an 11-1 run to take a 52-48 lead at the 2:19 mark.

All told, in the Pioneers' momentum-changing 17-3 run, the home team held the Green & White without a field goal for 9:55 while forcing Wagner into eight missed shots and five turnovers.

Murray would rise the challenge putting the Seahawks on his back yet again, converting an old-fashioned three-point play with 2:06 to play. On the play, he fouled out Sacred Heart's Femi Akinpetide, who had eight of his team's last 17 points, fueling the Pioneer rally.

Louis Montes pushed the lead back to three only to have sophomore Danny Mundweiler (Overland Park, KS / Olathe East) drill a pair from the line. Evan Kelley then converted a fast-break lay-up. After Murray missed a lay-up, Jerrell Thompson appeared to lock the game up for Sacred Heart, making a pair from the line while extending the lead out to five with just 47 seconds remaining. Murray immediately answered with a long three pointer, getting the deficit to two. After Thompson hit two more free throws, freshman Latif Rivers (Elizabeth, NJ / Avon Old Farms (CT)) hit a long three of his own with just 24 seconds to play, bringing the Seahawks to within one at 60-59 with just 24 seconds to play.

Jerrell Thompson appeared to break the press on the ensuing play but then tried to pass the ball through a trio of Green & White defenders only to have his pass batted down but had the ball deflected into the backcourt. On the resulting scrum, the officials ruled that the Pioneers recovered the ball past the halfcourt line for a violation while giving Wagner possession of the ball with just 14 seconds to play.

Murray took the ensuing inbounds pass and on a one-four spread set drove the ball to the basket while drawing a foul with just eight seconds to go. After missing the first free throw, his second bounced around the rim before falling through to tie the game up at 60-60. Sacred Heart would have confusion on the ensuing play and not get a clean look at the basket as the game would go to overtime.

The extra session was all Seahawks. Martin started overtime by a drawing a charging foul on Louis Montes. After pressuring the Pioneers into another turnover, Mundweiler found a cutting Ryan Schrotenboer (So., Fort Myers, FL / Bishop Verot) for a fast-break lay-up, giving the Seahawks a 62-60 lead. The Pioneers would tie it up at 62-62 with 2:35 to go on a pair of free throws from Shane Gibson. Rivers would break the tie with two free throws while giving Wagner a lead it would not relinquish. Gibson split two free throws before Murray converted a lay-up, extending the lead to 66-63 with 1:36 to play. Murray then forced a steal on the other end and Martin hit a pair of free throws, pushing the lead out to five with 44 seconds left in the game.

Later with the Green & White still up five, Jerrell Thompson hit a long three pointer, cutting the deficit to two at 70-68 with 27 seconds remaining. Martin then went to the line with a chance to ice the game but missed both free throws, the second of which senior #T.J. Czeski# (Amsterdam, NY / Amsterdam) corralled. Mundweiler was fouled and went to the line where he converted one and the Seahawk defense forced a missed three point attempt on the other end as Wagner escaped with a 73-68 win.

Murray led all players with 23 points and 10 rebounds while shooting 7-of-12 from the floor, 3-of-6 from beyond the arc and 6-of-7 from the charity stripe. On the season, he is leading the team in scoring (18.7 ppg), rebounding (5.6 rpg), assists (3.1 apg) and steals (1.4 spg). Joining Murray in double-figures was Rivers, who scored 21 points with five rebounds. He was 4-of-10 from beyond the arc and 9-of-10 from the free throw line despite missing his first attempt of his collegiate career.

Gibson paced four double-digit scorers for Sacred Heart with 17 points with six rebounds. Thompson had 13 points and a team-best eight rebounds iover a game-high 41 minutes while Akinpetide (13 points) and Kelley (11 points) rounded out the double-digit scorers for the Pioneers.

Both teams were sluggish in the first half. Sacred Heart hit three of its first four shots while jumping out to a 7-0 lead. The Pioneers were then limited to just 2-of-12 shooting over the next 10:42 by a stout Wagner defense while helping jump-start a stagnant offense. Trailing 19-14 with 6:17 until halftime, the Seahawks ripped off a 17-9 run over the next 5:17 to take an eight-point lead at 31-23 with just over a minute to play before heading into halftime up 31-26.

Both teams struggled at the onset of the second half before Wagner used an 8-2 run, highlighted by six points from sophomore Josh Thompson (Richland, NJ / St. Augustine Prep), to take  42-33 lead with 12:35 to play before Martin gave the Green & White its largest lead of the game at 45-35 with just over 12 minutes to play.

Wagner shot a season-low 35.2 percent (19-54) from the floor and a season-worst 33.3 percent (9-27) from beyond the arc but managed to convert 81.3 percent (26-32) from the charity stripe, including 76.5 percent (13-17) over the last five minutes of the second period and overtime.

The Seahawk defense limited Sacred Heart to just 36.4 percent (20-55) shooting, marking the fourth time this season in seven games that the opposition has failed to reach the 40-percent mark. The Pioneers also converted just 30.8 percent (4-13) from beyond the arc and 66.7 percent (24-36) from the free throw line, including 77.2 percent (17-22) after halftime.

The Green & White return to action on Tuesday, December 7 with a 7:00 pm game at Columbia.

NOTES: Coach Dan Hurley is the only Wagner head coach in the 30-year history of the NEC to win his first conference tilt ... The victory is also the 999th in program history ... The Seahawks improve to 4-1 in games decided by five points or less after going 3-8 a year ago ... The Green & White last played in an overtime game on January 21, 2010, besting Long Island by a 65-59 count ... This was the sixth game of of a grueling seven-game road trip that has seen Wagner go 3-3 while surpassing last year's road win total of two ... Czeski's offensive rebound with 18 seconds to play comes just two weeks after his Seahawk football team dropped a 38-22 game in the season-finale at Sacred Heart ... He led the squad with 11 tackles on that day ... Murray and Rivers, who entered the game as the league's leading scoring duo finished up with 44 points, on 11-of-26 shooting, including 7-of-16 from beyond the arc, and 15-of-17 from the free throw line and are now averaging 35.1 points per game ... Each player has hit for at least 20 points on three occasions this season ... The last time Green & White had two players go for at least 20 points was in last year's season-finale as Thompson (23 points) and Martin (21 points) combined for 44 ... Rivers saw his string of 31-straight free throws snapped with a miss at the 5:40 mark of the second half ... He rebounded to drill all four of his attempts in overtime and is now shooting a NEC-best 97.2 percent (35-36) on the season with Murray not far behind at 90.0 percent (30-33) ... The Canadian native notched his second double-double of the week and averaged 20.0 ppg, 8.3 rpg and 4.7 apg over 37.7 mpg while shooting 50.0 percent (18-36) from the floor, 42.9 percent (6-14) from beyond the arc and 94.7 percent (18-19) at the line while as Wagner defeated Bucknell and Sacred Heart ... The Seahawks also improve to 4-0 against teams that defeated them a year ago (Lafayette, Stony Brook, Bucknell & Sacred Heart) ... The Green & White allowed the Pioneers into the double-bonus in each half and have now done so in all 14 halves this season en route to averaging 26.4 fouls per game... Wagner is now 14-11, all-time, against the Pioneers and 17-13, all-time, in NEC-openers ... SHU head coach Dave Bike, who is the second-longest tenured coach in America behind only Jim Boeheim of Syracuse, falls to 9-14, all-time, against the Green & White.