Sacred Heart University Department of Athletics
Wagner College
Men's Hoop Wins Second Straight, Down Wagner 68-64
1/25/2009 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Jan. 25, 2009
FAIRFIELD, CT - Junior Chauncey Hardy (Middletown, CT) scored a career-high 25 points, while senior Joey Henley (Kent, WA) had his second double-double of the season with 18 points and ten rebounds to help the Sacred Heart men's basketball team defeat Wagner College, 68-64 on Sunday afternoon.
Wagner opened up a quick 5-0 lead before a 12-2 Pioneer run gave SHU a 12-7 advantage. Hardy had a pair of threes in the SHU run. The Pioneers held a 16-11 lead with 12:59 left in the half after a Ryon Howard basket but the Seahawks used a 12-0 run to take a 23-16 lead. Senior Joey Mundweiler hit two threes and TJ Czeski had another in the Wagner spurt.
The Pioneers fought back and took a 35-34 lead on a Henley dunk with 3:55 left in the half. Shane Gibson (Killingly, CT) stretched the advantage to three and Hardy made is 40-34 with a trey with 2:01 left. Wagner scored the last four points of the half to allow SHU to take a 40-38 lead into the intermission. Both teams shot the lights out in the half. Wagner shot 58 percent (14-24) and 6-7 from three, while SHU shot 55 percent (16-29) and buried six of 12 three pointers.
The Seahawks outscored the Pioneers 11-4 over the first four minutes of the second half to take a 49-44 lead. Junior Ryan Litke (Windsor, CT) hit a three to cut the Wagner lead to two, but it was the last bucket SHU would score for 6 ½ minutes. The Seahawks scored seven straight to take their largest lead at 56-47.
Gibson finslly broke the Pioneer scoring drought with 9:14 to go to make it 56-49. Over the SHU scoreless span, the Pioneers turned the ball over eight times and managed just one shot at the basket.
A three-pointer by sophomore Jerrell Thompson with 6:26 to play cut the Wagner lead to 58-57. Henley gave the Pioneers the lead with a dunk with 4:06 left off a pass from junior Corey Hassan (Merrimack, NH). Hassan finished with a career-high nine assists. Thompson gave the Pioneers the lead for good with a 15-foot jumper with 3:06 left.
It looked well in hand for the Pioneers with a 67-61 lead with 1:39 to play after a Henley leayup, but a Lew Radford free throw cut it to five and , after a Pioneer turnover, Justin Drummond cut it to three with :1:18 left with a dunk. Litke missed a jumper the next time down for the Pioneers with :39 left and Wagner had a chance to tie. Czeski threw a bad pass trying to find Mundweiler for a three and the Seahawks turned it over with :11. Wagner fouled Hardy with :08 who made one of two to put the game away.
The win was the second straight for the Pioneers and the first time they had won consecutive games since early December. SHU is now 8-11 overall and moved into a fourth-place tie in the NEC at 5-4.
