FAIRFIELD, Conn.— The third-seeded Sacred Heart University men's basketball team suffered a heartbreaking loss in the Northeast Conference quarterfinal, 60-57, on Wednesday evening to the sixth-seed Wagner College at home. Alex Sobel recorded his seventh double-double of the season, as he and Nico Galette scored in double figures.

Records:
#3 SHU: 16-16, 10-6 NEC
#6 Wagner: 14-15, 7-9 NEC

Leaders:
Alex Sobel: 15 points, 11 rebounds
Nico Galette: 10 points, 8 rebounds

Of Note:
Wagner opened the game with back-to-back triples to take an early six-point lead. Kyle McGee and Sobel made three straight free throws, but the Seahawks answered with four consecutive points to jump ahead 10-3.

After a Wagner triple put the Seahawks ahead 13-5, Sobel and Joey Reilly scored the next five points to pull SHU within three.

With a five-point Wagner lead at 9:16 in the first, Reilly and Raheem Solomon made back-to-back layups to cut the deficit to one, 20-19. Wagner continued to answer every time Sacred Heart started to gain some momentum. SHU pulled within one two more times through the rest of the half, but the Seahawks held a 35-31 advantage at the half.

It all came down to the final 20 minutes. Aidan Carpenter opened the frame with a jumper to pull SHU within two, 35-33, but the visitors answered with a three-pointer to take a five-point edge.

A Wagner layup at 11:36 in the second half gave the Seahawks a 48-41 advantage, but Sobel answered with a layup to spark an 8-0 run, capped by a McGee bucket to give the Pioneers their first lead of the day, 49-48. From there, it was a one-point game until the final 17 seconds.

McGee made a steal with 1:09 left in the game and the opportunity to go ahead by three but was denied with a game-changing block for Wagner. The Seahawks gained possession off a SHU turnover. A foul for Sacred Heart sent Wagner to the line as they scored its only two free throws of the game to go ahead by three. SHU made two attempts to tie the game with two three-pointers in the final 13 seconds but were unlucky and fell to Wagner 60-57 for the first time in the NEC postseason history.

The Pioneers concluded their season with a 16-16 overall record and finished with its best conference record since the 2019-20 season. Galette, Sobel, and Reilly earned All-NEC honors as the top three scorers for Sacred Heart.