Pictured Above: Senior Guard JoJo Cooper (Photo by Gabriel Rhodes)
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Fairfield, CT – After seeing its season-long seven-game winning streak come to an end on Sunday at Fairleigh Dickinson, the Wagner men's basketball team fired on all cylinders from long range in defeating the Sacred Heart University Pioneers, 99-84, on Thursday evening from the William H. Pitt Center.
In returning to their winning ways, the Green & White improve to 19-7 overall and 12-3 in the NEC. The victory, coupled with Fairlieigh Dickinson's 80-79 win at Mount St. Mary's, increases the Seahawks' lead atop the NEC standing to three games, with just three games left to play, as the Mount is now 9-6. With tonight's loss, SHU now falls to 9-19 on the season, 4-11 in league action.
Senior guard
JoJo Cooper paced an ultra-balanced and efficient team effort, tallying a team-high 23 points, to go along with seven rebounds, six assists, and three steals. Junior wing
Elijah Davis and sophomore guard
Blake Francis supplied 33 combined points off the bench, hitting for 17 and 16 points, respectively, while redshirt junior guard
Romone Saunders was the fourth Seahawk in double figures, matching Francis' 16-point output, while dishing out six assists.
Freshman forward
Nigel Jackson played with the same bounce in his step that he displayed early in the season, providing nine points on a perfect shooting night, going 3-for-3 in both field goals and free throws made. Fellow neophyte
Chase Freeman also provided a spark off the bench, chipping in nine points on 3-of-5 marksmanship from three-point range.
Sacred Heart took a 2-0 lead on a jumper by Sean Hoehn to open the game. It would be the last lead of the contest for the Pioneers as Wagner answered back with 11 straight points, nine coming on a trio of three-pointers from junior guard
Devin Liggeons, Jackson and Saunders. After a Cooper jumper with 14:07 left in the half allowed Wagner to regain its 11-point lead at 16-5, SHU briefly reversed course, thanks to a 16-9 blitz in drawing to within a bucket at 22-20 at the 6:53 mark.
The Seahawks closed the half by outscoring the Pioneers by a 25-18 count in taking a 45-36 halftime lead.
As he did at the outset of the game, Hoehn, who would finish with a game-high 24 points, scored the first points of the second half, this time on a three-pointer with 18:54 to play, making it a six-point game at 45-39. The Pioneers found themselves within six at 54-48 following a pair of Mario Matasovic free throws with 14:42 left, before the Seahawks answered with a quick 9-4 spurt over the next 1:12, connecting from downtown on three consecutive trips.
Francis knocked down the first one, followed by Jackson, with Saunders capping the burst from downtown with 13:30 to as Wagner regained a double-digit lead at 63-52. The Green & White were in full control from this point, maintaining their double-figure lead the rest of the way. Davis hit a layup with 8:32 remaining, the Seahawks had their biggest lead of the game, an 82-64 and never looked back.
Tonight's virtual wire-to-wire performance resulted in a host of team superlatives. For starters, Wagner was credited with 21 assists (on 35 made field goals), which ties a season high first in a 76-57 win over Mount St. Mary's (12/29) and equaled in the 96-76 home win over Bryant on February 8. As impressively, the Seahawks turned the ball over a season-low five times, marking their second straight clean offensive game as their previous season low was eight, last time out at Fairleigh Dickinson.
The Seahawks were a crisp 53.8 percent (35-of-65) overall from the field, with the 35 made field goals a season best. Wagner's hot shooting night also featured 50 percent marksmanship (16-of-32) from three-point range, with the 16 treys matching an all-time program high, as well as an NEC high for threes made in a game this season. And, for good measure, Wagner went 81.3 percent from the free throw line, converting on 13 of their 16 chances from the charity stripe.
The 99 points score tonight are the most by the Seahawks vs. a Division I opponent this season (96-76 win over Bryant on February 8) and second-most overall, as Wagner cracked the century mark in a 107-64 win over Division III College of Staten Island (11/21).
Sacred Heart also had an impressive offensive game tonight, with the Pioneers' 84 points coming on 54 percent accuracy. Hoehm's 25 points led four players in double digits for the night as Matasovic hit for 14, while Kinnin LaRose and Joseph Lopez added 11 apiece.
The Seahawks' final regular season home contest is slated for Saturday, February 17 as the Green & White put their 13-straight home winning streak on the line when they host LIU Brooklyn on Senior Day in a 4:00 p.m. tip at the Spiro Sports Center.
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Head Coach
Bashir Mason:
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