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Philadelphia, PA - Wagner (5-5) scored the first seven points of overtime and never looked back en route to posting a thrilling 75-69 victory over Penn (2-6) in a game that featured 14 ties and 10 lead changes at the legendary Palestra.

The Seahawks snapped a three-game losing streak and were led by senior Kenneth Ortiz (Newark, NJ / Southern Mississippi), who scored 14 of his game-high matching 18 points after halftime. Included in Ortiz's stellar second half was the final three Green & White buckets of regulations, all of which erased Quaker leads. After tying the game for the final time at 62-62 with 1:20 remaining, the two-time NEC Defensive Player of the Year snared a rebound on the other end before later stealing the ball with just over three seconds to play while snuffing out any chances of a Penn win in regulation.

Wagner opened the scoring in overtime with a pair of Mario Moody (Jr., Jersey City, NJ / East Orange Campus) free throws, before holding strong on its next two defensive possessions. Then with the shot clock winding down junior Jay Harris (Aurora, IL / Valparaiso) drained this three pointer from well beyond the arc to give the Seahawks a 67-62 lead with 1:57 to play. Senior Latif Rivers (Elizabeth, NJ / Avon Old Farms (CT)) followed with a rebound on the other end and Ortiz hit a pair of free throws to cap the game-clinching 7-0 spurt while extending the Green & White's advantage to 69-62 with 36 seconds remaining.

The Quakers would continue to fight and trimmed the deficit to three, before falling short by the aforementioned 75-69 count, Wagner made 1-of-2 from the floor and 10-of-12 from the line in collecting its fifth overtime victory since the start of last season. Ortiz also grabbed a team-best eight rebounds to go along with his 18 points and was matched by Rivers, who paced the squad in scoring for the 29th time in his career with his 18 markers.

Trailing by one at the break, the Seahawks opened the second half with a 10-3 run, capped by a three-point play and a three pointer from Rivers while opening up a 34-28 advantage with just over 18 minutes remaining. Penn would quickly answer with an 8-2 spurt of its own to tie the game up at 36 apiece at the 15:28 mark..

After the Green & White reclaimed the lead at 39-38 with a free throw, the Quakers wrestled the lead back with a 9-2 spurt in building a 47-41 advantage with just under 12 minutes remaining in the second. Penn had a chance to further extend the lead, but misfired on a pair of triple tries before Ortiz cut the deficit to four with his second basket of the half while foreshadowing his late-game heroics. Moody then canned a pair at the line before sophomore Dwaun Anderson (Suttons Bay, MI / Michigan State) scored four of the next six points to tie the game up at 49-49 with just under seven minutes to play. The teams would then trade blows the rest of the way before ending the second half in a 62-62 stalemate when Ortiz's last-gasp runner bounced off the rim.

Over the final seven minutes, the Quakers opened up four leads only to see Wagner match them each time.

For the game, the Seahawks shot just 33.3 percent (19-of-57), including 28.6 percent (4-of-14) from long range. However, the Green & White was able to make good on 84.6 percent (33-of-39) from the line, including converting 23-of-25 after halftime.

Harris scored all 11 of his points after halftime while Moody added 12 points and six rebounds off the bench to round out the double-figure scorers for Wagner.

Penn was led by Fran Dougherty, who scored 17 points with a game-high 11 rebounds while Tony Hicks added 14 and Darien Nelson-Henry 11.

The Seahawks return to action at former Northeast Conference (NEC) rival Rider on Saturday, December 14 at 3:00 pm.

Notes:
* Wagner improves to 3-0, all-time, against Penn and has won five-straight games against Ivy League opposition.

* The last two meetings between the teams have been decided in overtime with the Seahawks outscoring their counterparts by 27-16 count during that time.

* Head Coach Bashir Mason is now 3-0, all-time, against the Quakers as an assistant and head coach after going 0-4 as a player.

* Drexel's Bruiser Flint, who was Mason's collegiate coach, was in attendance after leading the Dragons to a victory over Tennessee State earlier in the day.

* Rivers is now averaging 17.0 points per game over three career match-ups with Penn as the Green & White improves to 20-9 when the Garden State native paces the squad in scoring.

* He also moved past Jamal Smith and Frantz Pierre-Louis into 19th place (1,278 points) on the all-time Wagner scoring list.

* Senior Naofall Folahan (Cotonou, Republic of Benin) blocked at least four shots in a game for the 11th time in his career. During that time the Seahawks are an impressive 9-2. Folahan is now just 14 blocks short of Pierre-Louis' school-record total of 176.

* The Green & White won for the first time this season when trailing at halftime and are 4-22 over the last three years when either tied or trailing with five minutes to play.

* Wagner is now 37-2 when limiting the opposition to less than 70 points and 25-12 in games decided by 10 points or less or in overtimes since the start of the 2011-2012 season.

* The Seahawks are 5-2 in overtime games since last season and 14-5 over the last seven years.

Follow Wagner Athletics on Twitter (@wagnerathletics) for all the latest news and updates on the athletic department, @WagnerHoops for news and updates on the men's basketball program and Bashir Mason">@BashirMason for news on the second-year coach.

Photography by Dave Saffran