Pictured Above: Senior captain
Romone Saunders (photo by Adrienne Terzuoli)
Box Score
Staten Island, NY – The Wagner men's basketball jumped out to a 12-2 start en route to a 46-32 halftime lead, and then withstood a late Sacred Heart rally in hanging on for a hard-fought 76-73 win over Sacred Heart at the Spiro Sports Center on Thursday night in a game that the Seahawks never trailed.
With the victory, Wagner evens its season mark at 7-7 while improving to 2-1 in Northeast Conference (NEC) play while the Pioneers fall to 6-10 overall, 1-2 in league play.
Redshirt senior guard and captain
Romone Saunders again filled up the stat columns on this night, going for a game-high 24 points, keyed by 5-of-9 shooting from three-point range, to go with five rebounds, four assists and a block.
Sophomore guard
Chase Freeman and senior guard
Elijah Davis added 13 points apiece for the home team, while senior guard
Devin Liggeons and sophomore forward
Nigel Jackson and chipped in with nine and seven points, respectively.
Koreem Ozier led Sacred Heart with 19 points on the night while reigning NEC Player of the Week E.J. Anosike and Jare'l Spellman added 14 and 10 points, respectively.
It was raining three-pointers early for the Seahawks as three long-range jumpers, two by Saunders, and one by Davis, helped trigger the game-opening 14-2 surge.
Wagner was able to sustain its double-digit lead until Anosike hit a layup with 5:32 left in the half to cap a 6-2 spurt and draw the Pioneers to within nine at 32-23.
The Green and White then closed the half on a 14-9 spurt of its own in fashioning their 46-32 halftime lead.
After shooting 51 percent in galloping out to that 14-point halftime edge, the Seahawks found much tougher sledding on the offensive end following the break as the Pioneers held Wagner to just 33 percent shooting following the break.
The Green & White appeared to still be in control when an old-fashioned three-point play by Saunders at the 12:42 mark gave Wagner a 12-point cushion at 56-44. SHU then responded with a 10-3 run in making it a five-point game at 59-54 with 8:40 left on a Zach Pfaffenberger jumper.
The rest of the game was a single-digit dog fight. With 1:36 left to play, the 6'10" Spellman fought his way inside for a layup that drew ShU within 69-65. The Seahawks then answered with the key possession of the game as Saunders hit a cutting Liggeons along the right base line and the tough Philly guard did the rest, taking it strong to the hole for a layup with 1:06 remaining that pushed the head back to six at 71-65.
The Seahawks then sealed it at the free throw line, going 5-of-6 from the charity stripe in the game's final 44 seconds in closing out the win.
Free throw shooting throughout the game was a huge key in the three-point victory for Wagner as the Seahawks went 83 percent (19-of-23) from the line. Wagner outshot SHU by a narrow 43%-40% margin but were uncharacteristically out-rebounded by the scrappy Pioneers who had a slim 36-35 edge on the glass.
The Green & White continue their four-game homestand with a matchup vs. Fairleigh Dickinson on Saturday, January 12 in a 4:00 p.m. tip in the second game of a doubleheaders as the Wagner and FDU women's team clash in the opener at 1:00 p.m.
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Wagner Athletics
Men's Basketball:
Head Coach
Bashir Mason:
