FINAL STATS

Staten Island, NY – The Wagner College women's basketball team received balanced scoring and solid defense throughout but 17 points from Ebony Davis and 15 from Ashley Palmer were too much to overcome as the Seahawks dropped a 67-60 Northeast (NEC) Conference battle to LIU Brooklyn.
 
Wagner out-shot the Blackbirds 44 percent to 38 percent and held a 36-31 edge in the rebounding department but the Seahawks undone by committing 26 turnovers, 16 of which came in the first half. With the win, LIU Brooklyn improves to 15-5 overall and evens their NEC record at 4-4 while the Seahawks, in losing their 12^th straight game, fall to 2-17, 1-7 in league play.
 
Junior forward Marie-Laurence Archambault (Montreal, Quebec/ Montmorency) led the Seahawks with 14 points, all of which came in the second half, highlighted by a 3-of-6 effort from beyond the arc while senior post players Kelly Clark (Neptune, NJ/ St. Rose) and Brittney Thorpe (Newport News, VA/ Heritage) added 12 points apiece. Thorpe helped keep Wagner in the game early with 10 of her 12 points coming in the opening half while Clark tallied all 12 of her points in the second half.
 
LIU Brooklyn came out of the gates blazing in taking a 10-0 lead to start the game. A 9-1 Wagner run, however,  o end the first half gave the Seahawks, who scored the final six points of the stanza, momentum heading into the locker room as the Seahawks trailed by just a 25-20 count at the break.
 
After LIU Brooklyn widened the lead to 30-23 at the 16:22 mark of the second half on a Palmer layup, the Seahawks responded with an 8-3 burst, with six coming from  Clark to close to within two points at 33-31with 11:55 left.
 
LIU Brooklyn then countered with a 16-6 burst over the next 6:38 to build the lead back to 12 at 49-37 as four different Blackbirds scored during the run. All six of Wagner's points during this stretch came from Archambault  on a three-point jumper and three free throws after being fouled on a three-point attempt.
 
The Blackbirds appeared to be in control with a 14-point lead at 55-41 following a pair of Cleandra Roberts free throws. But a three-point jumper by freshman forward Stephanie Blais (Sherbrooke, Quebec/ Montmorency) sparked an 11-4 surge, capped by a Thorpe layup with 1:28 left brought the Seahawks to within striking distance again at 59-52.  With the game seemingly in hand at 65-54 with just 39 seconds left, Archambault drained a pair of three-pointers to move the scrappy Seahawks within 65-60 before Palmer sank a pair of free throws with four seconds to go in fashioning the final score at 67-60.
 
When Blackbirds galloped out to that early 10-0 lead, it was sparked by a pair of three-pointers by Krystal Wells. Freshman point guard Jacqui Thompson (Southampton, PA/ St. Basil Academy) got the Seahawks on the board with a three-point jumper at the 15:33 mark of the first half to make it 10-3. Consecutive buckets by Thorpe and redshirt junior forward Chanez Robinson (Newark, NJ/ Shabazz) drew Wagner to within 13-9 before the Blackbirds answered with a 12-5 surge top open their biggest lead of the half at 25-14 with 4:16 to go.
 
Wagner then closed the half on a well-executed 6-0 run.  Archambault began the run with a layup off a Thompson assist with 2:35 left which was followed by four points from freshman F/C Ugo Nwaigwe (Valley Stream, NY/ Valley Stream South), making her first career start. Nwaigwe hit two free throws with 1:55 to go and then made a driving layup at 1:07 to cut the deficit to 25-20, which is the score the teams took into the locker room at halftime.
 
Davis led the Blackbirds with11 first-half points while Palmer and Wells added six apiece. The Seahawks held the Blackbirds to 25 percent (7-of-28) shooting while hitting 44 percent (8-of-18) themselves. Wagner also out-rebounded LIU Brooklyn 19-14 in the opening stanza.
 
With the victory, LIU Brooklyn improves to 15-5 overall on the season, 4-4 in NEC play while Wagner, which dropped its 12^th straight game, falls to 2-17, 1-7 in league play.
 
NOTE – Clark entered the game with 978 career points and, following her 12-point outing tonight, she enters Saturday's Noon contest at Quinnipiac with 990 points, 10 shy of becoming the 22^nd player in Seahawk history to reach the 1,000-point mark.