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Nov. 18, 2006
Princess Anne, Md. - Corey Brown, seeing his first action since the end of the 2004-2005 season, led all scorers with 23 points; but it wasn't enough as Wagner College defeated the University of Maryland Eastern Shore (UMES) 82-76. After being up two at the break UMES came out firing, running the lead up to seven when Antonio McMillion sank a pair of free throws just over two minutes into the half. Wagner seemed to wake up after that and begin to play their style of basketball. Jamal Smith seemed to be the spark at the right time as they took advantage of the Hawk's guard heavy lineup. The Seahawks tied the game at 43 on a Smith lay-in with 16:11 left to play. Wagner extended the lead to ten with 7:36 to play on another Smith lay-up. They maintained a double-digit lead almost the rest of the half. With only 1:30 left on the clock Mark Porter got a lay-in to give the Seahawks a 14-point advantage. Then came the Hawk offense. Ed Tyson rattled off a pair of baskets to cut it back to ten and Milutin Mirjacic stole the ball from Matt Vitale to convert a lay-up and cut the lead to eight with just 33 seconds left. Tyson rattled off two more lay-ups that sandwiched a Porter free throw to cut to seven. After making a free throw the UMES deficit was six with 24 seconds to play. UMES had to play the foul game and Porter made a pair to extend it back to eight but Brown's acrobatic lay-up made it six. Again forced to foul Wagner pushed the lead to nine on three more Porter free throws. A last second three by Jesse Brooks made it 82-76 at the horn.
Brooks had 20 points himself on seven of 21 shooting while McMillion and Tyson finished with 14. McMillion and Brooks led the Hawks on the boards with seven each. Wagner was paced by Porter with 21, 11 coming at the charity stripe in 16 attempts. James Ulrich had 18 and 14 boards to lead all rebounders. The Seahawks shot 50 percent from the floor while UMES was almost 43 percent. The turnover difference was just one, with UMES having 13 and Wagner 14. "Both teams played well, there is a lot to work on but I am pleased with effort," said Head Coach Larry Lessett. "Our guards made us go but we have to do more on defense to disrupt what they do," Lessett added. UMES also got hurt on the free throw line as Wagner went 22 of 33 to the Hawks ten of 20. The Hawks led at halftime 36-34 behind Brown's 18 first half points on seven for nine shooting, including four long balls. The Seahawks of Wagner couldn't contain the senior guard but Head Coach Michael Dean used halftime to retool his defense the Wagner held Brown to just five second half points on two field goals and a free throw. UMES and Wagner battled back and forth in the first half with the Seahawks taking a lead no bigger than eight. That came at the 8:11 mark when Joey Mundweiler knocked down two of his 14 points. UMES battled back at the 1:27 mark on a Brown three-pointer to cut the lead to one. He followed with another with 15 seconds left to give the Hawks a four-point advantage. A pair of Mark Porter free throws cut it to two, the difference at the half. UMES next travels to Annapolis, Md. to take on the United State Naval Academy on Tuesday, November 21 at 7:00 pm. |
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