Game Notes                Live Stats

The Sacred Heart University men's basketball team takes a two-game win streak to North Andover, Mass., Friday, to take on league front runner, Merrimack College. The Pioneers are playing the middle game of a three-game road swing. The Warriors are atop the league standings. Friday's game will air on CBS Sports Network with Dave Popkin handling play-by-play, Joe DeSantis as the analyst and Paul Dottino on the sideline.

Quick Hitters (Rankings through 2/17)

• The Pioneers win on Saturday clinched an NEC Tournament berth
• E.J. Anosike collected 22 rebounds on Saturday at LIU, the most in a Division I game in SHU history
• Anosike also became the 44th player in program history to reach 1,000 points, finishing the game at LIU with 1,009
• The 16 wins is the third most in Division I program history and the next victory secures a winning season for the first time since 2009-10 (15-14) 
• The Pioneers are 5th in the nation with 1,096 total rebound and are 11th at 40.59 per game
• Anosike is sixth in the NCAA in double-doubles and 8th in rebounding
• Jare'l Spellman ranks 8th in the nation with 69 blocked shots
• The Pioneers have hit 82.3% from the stripe the last three games (51-62) after shooting 66.7 percent in the first 11 NEC games
• The Pioneers have now had a positive A-TO ratio in 13 games

Within NEC Play

• SHU is the third stingiest defense in NEC play, allowing 65.6 points per game and second in  field goal percentage defense, 41.4% 
• The Pioneers are a league-best +7.1 in rebounding margin
• E.J. Anosike (15.5) and Koreem Ozier (13.6) rank 7th and 10th in scoring against NEC foes
• Anosike leads the league at 11.8 rebounds per game in conference action
• Jare'l Spellman has a league-best 35 blocked shots and 2.5 a game in league play
• The Pioneers are shooting 43 percent from the field 35.7 percent from behind the arc and 69.8 percent from the line against league foes
• With the win over the Mount, SHU now holds tiebreakers over CCSU, the Mount and Wagner in NEC standings, while SFU and RMU hold tiebreakers over the Pioneers

Notable Numbers (rankings through 2/17)

• SHU reached 40 rebounds for the 14th time in a game versus LIU
• The Pioneers need two wins to equal the Division I record for wins in a season (18)
• The Pioneers are 14-0 when scoring 73 or more points; winning with 58 against Mount and 66 at home versus CCSU
• Jare'l Spellman is tied for second, with Keith Johnson, with 165 career blocked shots and owns the top two single-season block totals in SHU Division I history, 96 and 69
• E.J. Anosike plays his 90th career game at Merrimack on Friday and has 1,009 points and 678 rebounds in that time
• Kinnon LaRose's next three pointer will be the 150th of his SHU career after reaching 300 career field goals made on Saturday
• Koreem Ozier is 20 points shy of 700 career points