Jan. 10, 2006

Box Score

STATEN ISLAND, NY - The Quinnipiac Bobcats held off a resilient Wagner Seahawks club by a score of 72-59 earlier tonight at the Spiro Sports Center. With the win Quinnipiac improves to 8-4 and 3-0 in the Northeast Conference (NEC) while the Seahawks fall to 1-12 and 1-3 in the NEC.

Down 37-27 at the half, the Seahawks looked like a different team in the second stanza as they hit four of their first five shots during a 9-2 run, highlighted by a Joy Gallagher (Sr., Hazleton, PA / Hazleton) three off a steal, to cut what was once a 17-point deficit to three at 39-36 with 17:24 remaining before Quinnipiac answered with a Brianna Rooney three-pointer. The Seahawks would continue to chip away at the lead, getting to within four points four more times throughout the game, but never closer.

Quinnipiac jumped out to an early 10-0 advantage in the game's first 4:22 before sophomore guard Chelsey Bunyer (Shannon, IL / Eastland) stopped the bleeding with a jumper and a three pointer. After exchanging baskets the Bobcats went on an 8-0 run over the next 3:24 to make the score 20-7 with 9:21 remaining. Quinnipiac then extended their lead to 32-15, their largest of the game, with 3:44 to go before Wagner's offense got going. Led by sophomore guard Megan Sullivan's (Brooklyn, NY / St. Francis Prep) six points, the Seahawks closed the gap to 10 with a 12-5 run to make it 37-27 at the half.

Sophomore center Ali Ridge (Barrington, IL / Fremd) had another impressive game as she had nine points, 10 rebounds and seven blocks. Ridge's seven blocks were one away from a career-high while moving her into fifth place on the Wagner career blocks list with 73. Her seven blocks are also the third-highest single-game total by a Seahawk player and give her two of the top three individual performances by a Seahawks. Her personal-best eight blocks against Manhattan (12/28/04) rank second all-time.

Bunyer had a team-high 14 points to go along with five rebounds, four assists and four steals while Gallagher had 12 points to round out the top performers for the Seahawks.

The Bobcats were led by Monique Lee's game-high 15 points and team-high eight rebounds.

Quinnipiac dominated the glass outrebounding Wagner 56-37. The Bobcats also shot the ball better then the Seahawks hitting at a 41.5-percent clip (27-65) from the field compared to just 31.3 percent (21-67) for the Green & White.

Wagner continues their four-game homestand on Saturday, Jan. 14 at 4 pm when they meet up with Sacred Heart for the second time in a week in the first game of a women-men's doubleheader.