Feb. 22, 2008

FAIRFIELD, CT - Setting The Scene: The Sacred Heart men's basketball team heads a few miles north to take on Quinnipiac University in the second game of a doubleheader on Saturday at 4 p.m. The Pioneers stand in third place at 12-3 in the Northeast Conference after a 73-57 win over St. Francis-PA last weekend.

Series: This is the 53rd career meeting between these schools that goes back to the Division II era for both teams. Sacred Heart holds a 35-17 edge all-time. The series at 8-8 in the Division I era. Sacred Heart won an earlier meeting this year, 75-74 and two of three meetings last season, including an 83-69 decision in the semi-finals of the NEC Tournament. The first meeting between the teams was in 1965, a 100-83 Quinnipiac win.

Upcoming Games: The Pioneers will complete the regular season with home games against Robert Morris (2/28) and Central CT (3/2).

Scouting the Opponent: Quinnipiac sits in fourth place in the conference standings after defeating Monmouth 62-60 at the buzzer on Thursday night. The Bobcats are 10-5 in the conference and need to defeat the Pioneers to have any chance to climb higher than fourth place.

All talk of the QU offense starts and stops with senior DeMario Anderson. A transfer from Central Connecticut, Anderson is one of the candidates to capture Player of the Year honors in the NEC. He is tops in the conference in scoring at 20.1 points per game. He also averages 6.3 rebounds, 3.3 assists and nearly two steals per game. He is shooting 44 percent from the field and 36 percent from three-point range.

The only other Bobcat scoring in double figures is junior guard Evann Baker at 11.6 points a game. Sophomore Casey Cosgrove is the top three-point shooter with 50, for a team that cans them at a 40 percent clip.

The Coaches: Dave Bike (Sacred Heart '69) is in his 30th year as the head coach of Sacred Heart. He has a career record of 461-411 and guided the Pioneers in their transition from a Division II program to Division I. His 450 victories ranks him 21st among active coaches. He led the Pioneers to eight NCAA Division II tournaments, and his 1985-86 team won the national championship while finishing 30-4. Bike was named the national Coach of the Year by the NABC following the title game. Prior to joining the SHU coaching staff, he worked as an assistant at Seattle University for four seasons. Drafted as a baseball player by Detroit, he spent five seasons as a catcher in the Tiger farm system.

Tom Moore (Boston Univ. `87) is in his 1st season at Quinnipiac, joining the program after serving as an assistant coach at UConn for seven years. He is the sixth coach in the history of the program and took over for Joe DeSantis. He has previous head coaching experience at Division III Worcester State College, where he compiled a 76-59 record. At the time of his hiring, Moore became the youngest coach of a New England collegiate program at just 24. In his last year with the Lancers, he guided them to their first NCAA Tournament appearance in nearly 20 years.

Playoff Bound: The Pioneers clinched their third straight NEC tournament appearance with their win over Monmouth on February 7, becoming the first team to sew up a berth this year. SHU will need two more victories to secure a home game in the first round of the playoffs.

Overtime Not Kind: The Pioneers are 1-9 in overtime games since turning Division I in 1999. The only win was a 133-130 four-OT thriller against FDU on 12/1/01. The Pioneers played one overtime game last season, losing to Central Connecticut 103-96 on January 27. They have yet to play OT in the 2007-08 season.

Where No Pioneers Have Gone Before: The Pioneers are 12-3 in the Northeast Conference for the first time in school history. The previous best NEC start for the SHU men was in 2006-07 when it was 9-6 after 15 games. The Pioneers finished that year with a 12-6 conference record.

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