Fairfield, CT -  The Wagner men's basketball team goes for the season sweep of the Sacred Heart University Pioneers as the two teams are set to battle on Saturday afternoon at the William H. Pitt Center in Fairfield, CT.  Back on January 7, junior guard Corey Henson (Upper Marlboro, MD / DeMatha Catholic) tossed in 24 points and senior wing Michael Carey (Nassau, Bahamas / Lamar Consolidated / San Jacinto) scored all of his 21 points in the second half to lead four players in double figures, as the Seahawks earned a 75-64 Northeast Conference (NEC) victory over Sacred Heart.  The Green & White will look to split this week's conference tilts after falling on the road at LIU Brooklyn, 76-69. Sacred Heart moved to 3-4 in league play after falling to Mount St. Mary's, 86-75. 

All-Time Series History: The Green & White lead the all-time head-to-head matchup, 21-14. The Seahawks took the first meeting of the year against the Pioneers, 75-64, at the Spiro Sports Center back on January 7, 2017.  Wagner is 9-8 all-time in Fairfield, CT, and are winners of four of the last five meetings at the William H. Pitt Center. 

The Coaches: Wagner's Bashir Mason, the 2015-16 Jim Phelan NEC Coach of the Year, is in his fifth season as the head coach of the Wagner Seahawks, owning a career record of 78-65. Mason is 6-2 all-time against the Pioneers. Sacred Heart's Anthony Latina, who is in his fourth season after taking over for longtime SHU head coach, Dave Bike, enters Saturday's contest with Wagner with a 40-72 overall record and is 25-33 in conference play. Coach Latina is just 2-5 all-time against the Seahawks in his career. 

Scouting The Sacred Heart University Pioneers: Winners of two of its last three, the Sacred Heart University Pioneers enter Saturday looking to bounce back in the win column after falling at home to the Mount St. Mary's Mountaineers, 86-75. In that contest, four Pioneers finished in double-figures led by Quincy McKnight's game-high 26 points on 12-of-19 shooting in 36 minutes of action. Chris Robinson added 14 points while Matej Buovac poured in 12 points off the bench while Joseph Lopez notched a double-double with 11 points and 10 rebounds. 
McKnight posted his eighth 20-point game of the season and is the team's leading scorer at 20.3 points per game, which ranks second in the Northeast Conference (NEC) and tied for 32nd among all NCAA Division I players. Lopez is the team's leading rebounder at 8.9 caroms a contest, tied for 50th in the NCAA and is second in the conference, just ahead of Wagner's Michael Carey and trailing LIU Brooklyn's Jerome Frink by 0.2. The Pioneers lead the circuit in assists, averaging 15.25 per game. As a whole, SHU is shooting 44.4 percent from the field, 31.5 percent from beyond-the-arc and converting 69.8 percent from the charity stripe.  

Controlling the Glass: Wagner has outrebounded its opponents in 12 of 17 games this season. Against local rival, Staten Island (12/22), the Green & White outmuscled the Dolphins by a staggering 32, 58-26 in its 52-point victory (94-42).  Twice this season, the Seahawks and their opponents grabbed the same amount of boards, back on Nov. 30 @ UMass (31) and most recently against Sacred Heart (1/7/17) (37). Last season, Wagner had outrebounded its opposition by double-figures in 17 games.  The Seahawks rank first in rebounding offense (39.6) and rebounding defense (31.0) and are outmuscling their opponents by +8.6.

Painting A Picture: Wagner has scored 494 of its 1148 total points from inside the paint, coming out to 43.0 percent of its total scoring. For the second time this season, the Seahawks scored 40 points in the paint at Bryant (1/12/17), matching the production set on the road at American (11/22). Nine times this year, Wagner has scored at least 30 or more points from downlow after scoring 38 on the road against LIU Brooklyn (1/19/17).