March 10, 2008

Final Stats

STATEN ISLAND, NY - Senior guard Drew Shubik (Stoystown, PA) scored 13 points, grabbed 14 rebounds and dished out six assists to lead the #3 seeded Sacred Heart University men's basketball team to a 55-49 win over #2 seed Wagner College in the Northeast Conference semifinals Saunday night.

The win, coupled with a loss by top seed Robert Morris earlier in the day, means the Pioneers will host #4 seed Mount St. Mary's in the NEC Championship Game Wednesday night at 7 pm. That game will be televised live on ESPN2.

Sacred Heart, 18-13, got the first points of the game on a three from junior Ryon Howard (Bronx, NY). The Pioneers used that to build an 18-4 lead with 10:45 left in the first half after a trey by sophomore Ryan Litke (Windsor. CT).

Wagner, 23-8, hit just one of its first 12 field goals, but scored the next five points on a three from Mark Porter and a layup by Jamal Smith to cut the Pioneer lead in half with 6:36 to go.

The next six points belonged to the Pioneers and gave them a 24-9 lead with 2:55 left in the half. A bucket by Llewchean Radford with :29 left help the Seahawks cut the SHU lead to 26-15 at the intermission.

The Pioneers scored the first five points of the second half on a layup by Shubik and a three from sophomore Chauncey Hardy (Middletown, CT) to open their biggest lead of the game at 31-15 with 17:57 to play.

The Seahawks were far from done, however, and went on a 7-0 run over the next four minutes to cut the Pioneer lead to just nine at 31-22. Shubik responded with a three-point play to push the lead back to a dozen, but Smith quickly answered with a trey for Wagner. Radford converted a pair of free throws with 10:59 left and the Seahawks were with seven at 34-27.

A Hardy layup with 9:48 left gave SHU a 39-29 lead and the lead would continue to shrink for the rest of the game. Sophomore Corey Hassan canned a three with 6:00 left to give SHU a 49-40 lead, but Smith again quickly answered for the Seahawks. That was part of a 7-0 Wagner run and a putback by James Ulrich and a pair of free throws by Joey Mundweiler put Wagner within two at 49-47 with 4:53 remaining.

Litke gave the Pioneers a 51-47 lead with 3:05 to go with a layup off a bullet pass from the top of the circle by Shubik. Porter answered quickly for the Seahawks to cut it back to two. After SHU turned it over on the next possession, Wagner had a chance to tie when Durell Vinson was fouled. Vinson, just a 33-percent shooter from the line, missed both and Shubik grabbed the rebound and was fouled.

Shubik missed the front end of a one-and-one and the Seahawks had another chance to tie or go ahead. This time Mundweiler missed a three and Gene Pettway (Bridgeport, CT) ripped down the rebound. Hardy turned it over for SHU when he dribbled the ball off his foot with :40 left, giving Wagner yet another chance.

Smith missed a trey trying to put the Seahawks ahead and Shubik grabbed yet another rebound. This time he made both free throws on the one-and-one to make it a two-possession game with :27 left.

"I missed big free throw here back in February that could have won the game in regulation," said Shubik. "I wanted to be at the line tonight with a chance to put the game away." Shubik's miss with :04 left on February 14 opened the door for Wagner to win in double-overtime, 100-92.

Porter raced the other way trying to get a quick score for the Seahawks, but Pettway blocked his layup attempt. Shubik got the board and threw an outlet pass to Hardy, who was fouled. Hardy canned two free throws with :11 left to put the game away.

SHU held its own on the boards against one of the top rebounding teams in the Northeast Conference. When the dust settled, both teams had 38 rebounds.

"We get sick of listening to the coaches repeating themselves all season," joked Shubik. "Sometimes the best way to get them to be quiet is to do what they ask. They have been telling us we need to rebound better and tonight we did that."

The Pioneers held Wagner to just 30 percent shooting in the game (16-53). The Seahawks struggled from the line all season - converting just 60 percent - and tonight shot just 57 percent from the charity stripe (12-21).

This is the second straight season the Pioneers have reached the NEC title game. Last year, SHU lost to #1 Central Connecticut 74-70 in the Championship Game.