Feb. 20, 2008

Loretto, PA - Winners of four straight games and seven of their last eight, the Seahawks embark on a crucial two-game Western Pennsylvania swing, meeting Saint Francis (PA) on Thursday at 7:00 pm before a Saturday night, 7:00 pm showdown at Robert Morris.

Since this will be the only meeting between Wagner and Robert Morris this season, the winner will claim the tiebreaker should the two teams finish in a dead heat for first place. Wagner has already swept the season series from Sacred Heart, while the Pioneers defeated Robert Morris in their first meeting back in January. The two teams will also square off on February 28th in Fairfield.

The match-up at hand, vs. Saint Francis (PA.) figures to be anything but a breather for the Seahawks as back on Jan. 12 in Staten Island, Wagner survived a great challenge by the Red Flash, hanging on for a 60-59 victory.

Wagner enters this stretch 19-6 overall, 12-2 in the NEC and tied with Robert Morris for first place in the league standings. The Seahawks are coming off a 68-61 home victory over Monmouth last Saturday.

The Seahawks are led by senior guard Mark Porter, who leads the team with a 16.3 ppg. average and ranks in the NEC top 10 in seven different categories.

Senior center Durell Vinson, Porter's teammate at St. Augustine Prep in South Jersey, is comng off a 19-point, 19-rebound effort in the win over Monmouth. Porter and Vinson have won NEC Player of the Week each of the last two weeks.

The veteran Seahawks have demonstrated a "Cardiac Kids" quality all season, particularly of late. Wagner is 4-0 on the year in overtime games and recently completed a sequence of three consecutive OT wins. On the heels of overtime wins at Mount St. Mary's and Quinnipiac, the "Cardiac Kids" out-did even themselves by needing two overtimes to dispatch of Sacred Heart on Feb. 14, a team that entered the game in first place in the NEC and riding an eightgame winning streak.

A sell-out crowd of 1,787, and a television audience tuned in on the MSG Network, witnessed an instant classic in the Wagner's thrilling 100-92 victory over the Pioneers as Porter scored eight of his career-high 28 points in the second overtime session.

Wagner is on the verge of becoming just the fourth team in school history to win 20 games in a season. Head coach Mike Deane, who improved to 412-291 in his career, has moved to within one game of the .500 mark in his five-year Wagner tenure as he now stands at 70-71.

Wagner's 19-6 overall record is the best record of any New York City Metro area school.

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