Nov. 28, 2007

Box Score

Providence, RI - Senior center Durell Vinson (Vineland, NJ/ St. Augustine) grabbed a career-high 18 rebounds and added 12 points while senior guard Mark Porter (Atlantic City, NJ/St. Augustine) tallied a season-high 23 points to lead Wagner to a 64-63 victory at Brown.

The Seahawks have now won three straight games and improve their record to 4-2. Brown, which was coming off an impressive victory at Big 10 member Northwestern, falls to 2-3.

In a wild and wooly affair that featured 18 lead changes and 11 ties, Wagner survived an anxious finish as Brown guard Damon Huffman's off-balance three-pointer rimmed out at the buzzer. After taking a 35-34 halftime lead, the first seven minutes of the second half was punctuated by eight lead changes. Wagner took the lead 47-46 on a pair of free throws by senior swingman Jamal Smith (Baltimore, MD/ Towson Catholic) and held the lead until the final 30 seconds of the game.

The biggest lead the Seahawks could muster the rest of the way was five. With Wagner leading 59-54 inside of five minutes to play, Brown went on a 9-3 spurt, capped by a pair of free throws by guard Mark McAndrew which gave the Bears a 63-62 lead with 26 seconds left to play. With seven seconds to play, Porter was fouled on a drive to the basket by Huffman and calmly nailed both free throws. Following a Brown timeout, Wagner's defensive pressure resulted in Brown needing to call another timeout with 2.7 seconds left.

Following this final timeout, Huffman received the inbounds near his own foul line, dribbled across mid-court and lost the handle for a moment, before hoisting a three-pointer that was on target and had a great chance to go down.

Senior forward James Ulrich (Mt. Laurel, NJ/ Camden Catholic) added 10 points and four rebounds while junior guard Joey Mundweiler (Olathe, KS/ Olathe East HS) had eight points but had a tough shooting night, connecting on just 3-of-16 shots, including 2-of-12 from three-point range.

Wagner out-shot Brown 44.2%-40.7% and dominated on the glass. With Vinson leading the way, Wagner out-rebounded Brown 44-31.

The Seahawks are next in action on Saturday when they travel to New Haven, CT to meet Yale. Tip-off is set for 2:00 pm.