Feb. 17, 2008

Sacred Heart vs. Wagner Game Notes in PDF Format

Sacred Heart Pioneers (17-8, 12-2 NEC) vs. Wagner Seahawks (6-18, 4-9 NEC)

Game #26 - Monday, February 18, 2008 - 7:00 pm - Staten Island, N.Y. - Spiro Sports Center (2,100)

The Storyline... The Sacred Heart Pioneers take their four-game winning streak on the road Monday night to Staten Island, N.Y. to take on the Wagner College Seahawks. SHU is coming off their largest win of the year, a 68-36 decision over Saint Francis (PA) on Saturday, their ninth-straight at home. The Pioneers sit in second place at 12-2 in the Northeast Conference standings with four games to play and a half game difference between the top spot and third. Sacred Heart is chasing Quinnipiac (12-1) with Robert Morris nipping (11-2) nipping at their heels and Long Island (10-3) right around the corner. The Seahawks have played their way back into the playoff hunt with a pair of wins last week and four of their last six to sit tied for 8th at 4-9.

Series... The Pioneers lead the all-time series, 12-7. Sacred Heart has won seven-straight in the series after a 69-53 win at home in January. From 2001-2004, SHU and Wagner split their six meetings, each team winning on their home court. The two schools met for the first time during the 1978-79 season, with Wagner coming away with a one-point victory, 64-63, in Fairfield. The Pioneers and Seahawks would face-off again the following season as Wagner posted a convincing 73-44 win. It would be 19 years before the two schools would take to the hardwood again when Sacred Heart joined the Northeast Conference for the 1999-00 season. Wagner took both meetings that year and then eliminated the Pioneers from the NEC Tournament with a 59-56, win at Monmouth.

The Coaches... Ed Swanson (SHU `89) is in his 18th season as head coach at his alma mater. Swanson posts a 295-210 record in his career at Sacred Heart. His teams have a 168-91 record since joining the Division I ranks in 1999-00. Swanson is the program's longest tenured coach and is the all-time leader in coaching wins, (295) and winning percentage (.584). He earned his first ever NEC Brenda Reilly Coach of the Year award after guiding SHU to a then school record 21 wins in 2003-04. Gela Mikalauskas (Kean `77) is in her 14th season as the head coach at Wagner College. Mikalauskas has a 185-203 (.477) record in her 14 seasons at Wagner and overall. This is Mikalauskas second stint as head coach of the Seahawks. She was named the NEC Coach of the Year in 1989 and is a member of the Wagner Athletics Hall of Fame as she holds the most victories (185) in program history.

Last Time Out... Junior Stephanie Ryan scored a game-high 15 points and junior center Kaitlin Sowinski added 13 as Sacred Heart moved past St. Francis (PA), 68-36, on Saturday afternoon. Ryan, who scored the first seven points of the game, jump started a 14-0 run for the first 4:33 of play and the Pioneers never looked back. In the initial run, the Pioneers were 6-of-7 from the floor, while the Red Flash were 0-of-7. However, St. Francis (PA) regained some momentum and built a 10-3 run of its own to cut its deficit to just six. At the 8:23 mark, Sowinski converted on a lay-up and began a 17-3 run to end the half and balloon her team's lead to 37-15. St. Francis (PA) went in a scoring drought that spanned from 5:29 left in the first to 3:24 into the second, and failed to stop the balanced Sacred Heart offensive attack. While the Red Flash had its scoring troubles, the Pioneers kept rolling and eventually maintained a 30-point lead. Several bench players received some big minutes, including Liz Gruber and Lisa Moray. Gruber scored six points, grabbed four rebounds and dished out four assists in 19 minutes, while Moray hit two 3-point field goals in 22. Sacred Heart was 10-for-15 from 3-point field goal range, while St. Francis (PA) was 0-for-9.

Scouting the Seahawks... The Wagner Seahawks have been one of the hottest teams in the NEC and have played themselves in to playoff contention over the last three weeks. The Seahawks were mired in a mid season 16-game losing streak but snapped it on January 28th against Mount St. Mary's and have rattled off four wins in their last six games. The Seahawks have won two-straight and are coming off a 71-61 win over Monmouth on Saturday that puts them at 4-9 in the league standings, tied for with the Hawks for the last playoff spot. Senior guard Chelsey Bunyer is the only Wagner player averaging double digits at 10.5 points per game coming in. Sophomore Andrea Reed is averaging 8.9 points per game and 5.1 assists, a mark that leads the league.

Last Meeting with Wagner... Kaitlin Sowinski scored 15 points and grabbed ten rebounds, while Stephanie Ryan led all scorers with 16 points and grabbed nine boards to lead Sacred Heart to a 69-53 win over Wagner on January 5th at home. Sacred Heart jumped out to a 10-0 lead in the first 4:30 of the game and held a 28-22 lead with 4:27 left in the half but the Seahawks used a 9-1 run the rest of the period to take a 31-29 into the intermission. SHU scored the first six points of the second half to take a 35-31 lead. A Chelsey Bunyer jumper cut the gap to four, but the Pioneers used an 11-1 run over the next three minutes to open an insurmountable 56-42 advantage. Khalia Cain finished the game with 15 points for SHU, while freshman Alisa Apo was also in double figures with 14. Wagner was led by Andrea Reed with 14 points.

Pioneers in the Northeast Conference... Sacred Heart is in it's ninth season of play in the Northeast Conference. The Pioneers have posted a 118-40 conference record, having never finished lower then tied for third in the final league standings. The Pioneers have won back-to-back NEC Regular Season Championships and laid claim to the 2006 NEC title winning the league tournament. Head Coach Swanson is closing in on becoming the conference's all-time leader in regular season NEC wins at 118. Bill Sheahan from Mount St. Mary's is the all-time leader at 124 victories.

Team News and Notes...

- Sacred Heart clinched their ninth-straight trip to the Northeast Conference Tournament with Monday night's win over Monmouth. The Pioneers are currently in second place in the standings with an 12-2 mark, a half game behind Quinnipiac for first place and a half game in front of Robert Morris in third. The win also assured SHU of it's eighth-straight winning season and 13th-straight year with at least a .500 record or better.

- The Pioneers notched the program's 400th win on Saturday beating Saint Francis (PA), 68-36. Since begin basketball in 1974-75, Sacred Heart has amassed a 400-454 overall record.

- SHU held Saint Francis (PA) to just 36 points, their lowest point total allowed this season. The Pioneers also held the Red Flash to just 31.9% shooting, the lowest mark for an opponent this season. The 32-point margin of victory was the largest margin of victory this season. The previous high was 31 at Central Connecticut (71-40).

- Junior Kaitlin Sowinski is closing in on becoming the 13th player in school history to score 1,000 career points. Sowinski has 932 career points heading into Saturday's game.

- Freshman Alisa Apo leads the NEC in three-point shooting, hitting 47.3% (35-74) from behind the arc on the year. In 14 NEC games, Apo is averaging 15.4 points while hitting 52.1% (25-48) from downtown. Apo played just 20 minutes in Saturday's win after a minor ankle injury. She did return to the court in the game and isn't expected to miss any time.

- The Pioneers have steadily become one of the better three-point shooting teams in the league. On the year, SHU is hitting 36.5% (137-375) behind the arc, third among the conference leaders. SHU is coming off 10 three-point field goals on Saturday and over the last six games SHU is shooting 53.8% (43-80) from downtown led by Stephanie Ryan (12-17), Maggie Cosgrove (12-23), Alisa Apo (11-20) and Khalia Cain (4-7).