BOX SCORE

Newark, NJ – NJIT scored the first seven points of the game and never looked back en route to a 68-56 wire-to-wire victory over Wagner in non-conference action at the Fleisher Center. Led by Jessica Gerald's game-high 27 points the Highlanders evened their record at 1-1 while the Green & White fell to 0-2.

Junior Ashley Olsen (Staten Island, NY / Notre Dame Academy) recorded her second-straight double-double with 13 points and 10 rebounds, pacing the Wagner attack. Freshmen Marie-Laurence Archambault (Montreal, Quebec / Montmorency) and Veronick Fournier (Gatineau, Quebec / Montmorency) each scored eight points while junior Sha'Ron Harrison (Paterson, NJ / John F. Kennedy) scored seven points with eight rebounds off the bench, rounding out the top Seahawk performers.

Down 31-24 at the half, Fournier opened the second half with a three pointer to cut the lead to four with 19:22 to go. Unfortunately for the Seahawks, that would be as close as the Green & White would get the rest of the way. NJIT pushed the lead out to a half-high 17 at 57-40 with 6:37 remaining, following a 15-5 run that spanned 7:49. Trailing by 15 points ripped off eight-straight points to get within seven at 59-52 with 1:58 to go, but were unable to dent the lead further, falling 68-56.

In defeat, Wagner won the battle of the boards by a 48-30 margin, including 22-14 on the offensive end, but was done in by 33 turnovers, which contributed to a 29-12 advantage in points off turnovers for the Highlanders. NJIT also connected on 84.0 percent (21-25) from the charity stripe while the Seahawks were good on just 57.1 percent (12-21).

With Andrea Reed (Pocomoke City, MD / Pocomoke) not in the starting line-up for only the second time in the last three seasons the Highlanders raced out to an early 7-0 lead before Archambault hit a lay-up at the 16:55 mark to put the Green & White on the board. After Kelly Clark (Neptune, NJ / St. Rose) split a pair from the charity stripe, NJIT scored nine points in a row to push the lead out to 16-3 at the 12:12 mark. Senior John'a Poole (Middle River, MD / Eastern Tech) quelled the bleeding with a lay-up off a nice pass from Olsen before hitting an outside jumper from 18 feet to make it 16-7. Gerald pushed the lead back out to 10 at 17-7 after splitting a pair from the line. The Seahawks fought back to cut the deficit 31-24 at intermission as Poole led the charges with six points in the opening stanza.

The teams have now split all four meetings with the home team winning each time.

Wagner heads to Colgate on Saturday for a 2:00 pm contest.