Dec. 2, 2006

Box Score

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. - James Ulrich scored 21 points and grabbed 10 rebounds to lead Wagner to a 72-65 victory over Yale before 1,117 at the Spiro Sports Center. Ulrich made 8 of 17 shots from the field and added three steals, two assists and one block. Jamal Smith and Mark Porter each scored 14 points for the Seahawks. Casey Hughes and Caleb Holmes paced the Bulldogs with 11 points.

The game was close throughout and featured eight ties. The Seahawks' largest lead of the game was the final margin.

Two free throws by Hughes tied the score at 63 with 2:16 left. On Wagner's next possession, Ulrich made a layup and was fouled. He missed the foul shot, but got his own rebound and was fouled. He made the first free throw but missed the second. Smith, though, got the offensive rebound, and later scored on a layup off a nifty pass from Llewchean Radford to make it 68-63 with 1:36 remaining.

Sam Kaplan made two foul shots to pull Yale back within three, 68-65, with 1:14 left. After Porter made one of two fouls shots, the Bulldogs had a chance to get within one, but a Travis Pinick three-pointer missed. Porter then hit three free throws in the final 24 seconds to seal the victory.

"They really hurt us on the offensive boards," said James Jones, The Joel E. Smilow, Class of 1954 Head Coach of Men's Basketball. "We knew going into the season that could be an issue, but we had done a pretty good job. This is the first time it hurt us."

The Seahawks (2-5) had 19 offensive rebounds in the game and outscored the Bulldogs 27-4 on second chance points.

"You can't expect to win when that happens," Jones said.

Eric Flato finished with 10 points for the Bulldogs (1-5). Ross Morin scored nine and Kaplan, Pinick and Alexander Zampier each had seven.

Yale started the game strong, connecting on its first six shots, and led 14-3 on Flato's layup with 16:06 left. Wagner chipped away and pulled to within three, 19-16, on Joey Mundweiller's three-pointer.

The Bulldogs built the lead back to 10, 29-19, on Kaplan's jumper with 6:12 left, but the Seahawks closed the first half with a 12-6 run and trailed 35-31 at the intermission. Yale shot 51.9 percent (14 of 27) from the field in the first half, including 4 of 7 from three-point range.

The Bulldogs scored the first four points of the second half, but Wagner then ran off eight straight points, including a Smith dunk that tied the score at 39 with 14:18 left. The Seahawks' first lead of the game, 55-53, didn't come until Porter made two free throws with 7:55 remaining.

This was the second straight tightly contested game between the teams. Last year in New Haven, Wagner escaped with a 73-69 victory. Durell Vinson's layup with 49 seconds left snapped a 69-69 tie. Yale had a chance to tie in the final seconds, but Vinson blocked a Kaplan shot with 10 seconds left. Mark Porter then sealed the victory with two free throws.

The Bulldogs are back in action on Monday when they play at Sacred Heart at 7 p.m.

Report filed by Tim Bennett, Yale Sports Publicity