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Fairfield, CT - Senior Tyler Murray (Toronto, Ontario / Eastern Commerce) drained a career-best seven three pointers en route to a season-high 21 points, lifting Wagner to a 73-54 victory over Sacred Heart at the Pitt Center. In winning the teams' lone regular season match-up, the Seahawks improve to 16-4 and 7-2 in the Northeast Conference (NEC) while the Pioneers fall to 10-12 and 4-5 in the league. Additionally, the Green & White won on the road for a NCAA-best ninth time and are 10-2 outside of the Spiro Sports Center.

The Wagner defense was on point all night in forcing Sacred Heart, which entered the game as the NEC's leading three-point shooting team, into just 3-of-20 shooting (.150) from beyond the arc and a season-low 54 points. Meanwhile, the Seahawks connected on a season-best 11 from long range while converting a blistering 52.4 percent (11-21). The aforementioned Murray, who moved to 29th on the school's all-time scoring list with 1,103 points, led the way on offense with his career-best seven three pointers on just nine attempts en route to notching at least 20 points for the 11th time in his career. The Green & White also forced 19 miscues that led to a 25-10 advantage in points off turnovers.

Junior Jonathon Williams (Richmond, CA / Kennedy / CC of San Francisco) added 14 points while freshman Mario Moody (East Orange, NJ / East Orange Campus) was one rebound short of his third double-double, finishing up with 12 points and nine rebounds in just 19 minutes. Rounding the top performers on offense for Wagner was sophomore Latif Rivers (Elizabeth, NJ / Avon Old Farms), who notched 10 points in recording double-figures in scoring for the 16th time on the year.

Down 4-3 with 16:46 to go in the first half, Rivers quickly reclaimed the lead for the Seahawks at 5-4 with a layup while sparking a quick 7-0 run. Murray followed with a three pointer before frshman Marcus Burton (Charlotte, NC / David W. Butler) capped the spurt with a fastbreak layup off a steal. Luis Montes then split a pair from the line to briefly quell the Seahawk momentum. Murray and Rivers responded with three pointers, before sophomore Orlando Parker (Orlando, FL / Orlando Christian Prep) converted a layup off a pass from Rivers, staking the Green & White to an 18-5 lead with 10:59 to play in the half.

All-told over the first nine-plus minutes of the opening half, Wagner forced nine miscues that led to a 10-0 advantage in points off turnovers while outscoring Sacred Heart 15-1 over a span of 5:20 in building what would turn out to be an insurmountable lead.

Shane Gibson, who leads the NEC in scoring, stopped the bleeding and then some with nine-straight points, cutting the Seahawk lead to 18-14 with 7:57 to go in the first.

In keeping with the game-of-runs them, the freshmen tandem of Burton and Moody quickly responded for the Green & White. Burton sank a three pointer on the ensuing possession before Moody converted an old-fashioned three-point play, off a Burton pass, pushing the lead back out to 10 at 24-14 with 6:54 to play until halftime.

Wagner's lead would grow to 35-23 at the 1:13 mark of the first following a Williams three-point play before Sacred Heart scored the final five points to head into halftime down 35-28.

Despite shooting just 38.7 percent (12-31) from the floor in the opening half, the Seahawks assumed a seven-point lead at intermission thanks to converting on 5-of-10 from long range while holding the Pioneers to just 1-of-8. Additionally, the Green & White parlayed 14 Sacred Heart miscues into a 16-6 advantage in points off turnovers while winning the battle of the bench by a 15-3 margin, thanks to 13 points from Moody and Burton.

The 14 Sacred Heart miscues marked the ninth time this year that Wagner has forced at least 10 turnovers in the opening half while the Seahawks' nine first-half steals were a season-high.

After the Pioneers cut the lead to six early in the second half, Murray quickly answered with his fourth triple of the game before sophomore Naofall Folahan (Cotonou, Republic of Benin / Wilbraham and Monson Academy (MA)) followed with a bucket of his own, extending the lead to 43-32 with just under 17 minutes to play.

Sacred Heart would cut the deficit to nine at 52-43 with 9:58 to play, but could not grab the ball on the other end as Wagner parlayed kept the ensuing possession alive with two offensive rebounds, leading to a pair of Moody free throws that again extended the lead into double-figures.

The Pioneers would make one final push getting to within 11 at 65-54 with 3:19 to play only to have Murray step up and drill his career-high seventh three pointer that sparked a game-ending 8-0 run while providing the final 73-54 tally.

In victory, the Seahawks avoided losing back-to-back games for the first time all year while improving to a perfect 13-0 when keeping the opposition under 70 points, 12-1 when scoring at least 70 and an eye-popping 16-1 when leading with five minutes to play.

Wagner, which began the second half with a 14-7 run, limited Sacred Heart to just 33.3 percent (9-27) shooting after halftime, including 16.7 percent (2-12) from long range, while converting 45.2 percent (14-31) from the floor and a blistering 54.5 percent (6-11) from deep.

Pacing the Pioneers attack was Gibson, who led three double-figure scorers, with an even 20 points.

Wagner wraps up its two-game road trip in the Nutmeg State against Quinnipiac on Saturday, January 28 at 2:00 pm.