Pictured Above: Redshirt junior guard Romone Saunders (Credit: Stephen Slade)
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Staten Island, NY – Redshirt junior guard
Romone Saunders matched his career high with 24 points to lead three players in double figures, which, combined with a defensive effort that held Sacred Heart to 37 percent shooting, led the Wagner men's basketball team to a gutsy 69-63 win over Sacred Heart at the Spiro Sports Center on Thursday night.
With the victory, the Seahawks improve to 9-5 on the season, 2-1 in Northeast Conference (NEC) play, and are now a perfect 7-0 at home. With the loss, the Pioneers fall to 6-10 overall and are now 1-2 in league play.
Saunders' 24-point night, which was also a season high, came on 7-of-14 shooting from the floor and included nine rebounds, as he came within one carom of a double-double. Senior guard
JoJo Cooper added 14 points, five assists and five rebounds, while sophomore guard
Blake Francis added 13 points.
At the outset of the contest, it appeared that Wagner was going to have an easy time of it as the Seahawks galloped out to a quick 12-0 lead. Three-pointers from Francis and freshman forward
Nigel Jackson helped trigger the early 12-0 run. SHU finally got on the board on a Mario Matasovic jumper with 15:08 remaining in the half.
Wagner then outscored Sacred Heart 11-7 over the next four minutes in building its biggest lead of the game, a 14-point advantage at 23-9 midway through the opening half. Slowly but surely, the Pioneers pecked away at the Seahawk lead, outscoring the Green & White 25-12 the rest of the half in pulling to within one point at the break, 35-34.
Sacred Heart's Joseph Lopez opened the second half with a layup, giving the Pioneers their first lead of the game at 36-35 with 19:05 left.
After Wagner regained the lead at 36-35 following a Saunders jumper at the 18:33 mark, SHU went on a 10-5 run over the next 4:43 in building its biggest lead of the game, a four-point, 46-42 advantage at the 13:50 mark, with the run capped by a Zach Radz three-pointer.
The teams then went back and forth with the lead changing hands five times over the next five-plus minutes. A free throw by redshirt junior forward
AJ Sumbry with 7:16 remaining gave Wagner a 54-50 cushion but the Pioneers answered with four straight points, tying the game at 54-54 when De'von Barnett hit the second of two free throws with 4:03 left to play.
Francis, who had a cold shooting night to this point, then started to heat up as he hit for five quick points. The lefty's three-pointer with 3:41 left gave the Seahawks the lead for good at 57-54 with 3:41 to go. He then hit a long two-point jumper, this one with 3:02 left, as the Seahawks went ahead by five at 59-54.
After Radz sank a pair of free throws with 2:50 to go which made it a 59-56 game, Cooper grabbed an offensive rebound off a missed jumper by junior wing
Elijah Davis, before nailing a clutch three-pointer with 1:55 left to make it 62-56 and the Seahawks held on from there.
With Saunders and Francis doing their damage, primarily from deep, and Cooper hitting a variety of layups, runners and three-balls, Sumbry was busy patrolling the paint all night, finishing with a workmanlike nine-point, 11-rebound effort.
Matasovic paced the Pioneers with 16 points on the evening while Radz and Lopez added 12 and 10 points, respectively. In addition to his 10 points, Lopez pulled down a game-high 12 rebounds in finishing with a double-double.
Wagner outshot SHU by a slight 40-37 percent margin, out-rebounded the Pioneers, 46-40, held a 28-24 edge in points in the paint and a 16-8 margin in second-chance points. SHU, meanwhile, led in points off turnovers (12-9), fastbreak points (8-5), while enjoying an overwhelming 25-4 edge in points off the bench.
The game featured three ties and eight lead changes, all of which came in the second half.
With the win, Wagner now leads the all-time head-to-head series, 23-14, improved to 13-6 all-time vs. SHU at the Spiro Sports Center. The Seahawks have won four of their last six meetings with the Pioneers, including a season sweep a year ago.
Tonight's win continues head coach
Bashir Mason's march to the 100-win mark for his career he is now 96-74 in his six seasons on Grymes Hill.
Wagner closes out the first week of 2018 when the Seahawks welcome the Fairleigh Dickinson University Knights to the Spiro Sports Center on Saturday, January 6 for a 4:00 p.m. tipoff. The matchup between the Seahawks and the Knights is the second game of a doubleheader as the Wagner women host FDU at 1:00 p.m.
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