FINAL STATS
West Long Branch, NJ – Senior center
Kelly Clark, who hails from nearby Neptune, NJ, recorded her fifth double-double of the season and ninth of her career with 22 points and a career-high 16 rebounds but Monmouth did a solid defensive job on the rest of the Wagner lineup and received balanced scoring, led by Alexia Canady's 15 points, in posting a 65-42 Northeast Conference (NEC) win.
The 6-3 Clark, who excelled at St Rose High School in Belmar, NJ, felt very comfortable in her return to the Jersey Shore in hitting the 20-point plateau for the fifth time this season and ninth time in her career. Clark's explosive night leaves her just 83 points shy of becoming the 22
nd player in Seahawk history to reach the 1,000-point mark as she has now scored 917 career points. Clark also registered a career-tying six blocked shots which give her 163 for her career, good for second on the Wagner all-time career list.
In dropping their seventh straight game, the Seahawks fall to 2-12 on the season, 1-2 in conference play while Monmouth improves to 6-8 overall, 1-2 in the NEC.
Trailing 2-0, Wagner took its only lead of the game on a three-pointer by freshman point guard
Shawn-Marie Heiliger that made it 3-2 52 seconds into the game. After Monmouth's Gena Broadus tied the game with a free throw at the 17:54 mark, neither team could find the net for the next 4:07 until Shira Shecht gave the Hawks the lead for good with a layup with 13:47 to go in the half. This bucket sparked a 7-0 run that put the Hawks up 10-3.
A Wagner 8-5 burst, with four of those points coming from Clark, made it a 15-11 game with 8:08 left. Monmouth then put together a quick 11-2 run over the next 2:19 to stretch the lead 24-13 en route to building a 35-21 advantage at the intermission. The Hawks then opened the second half on a 15-6 blitz over a span of 6:01 to open a commanding 50-27 lead with 13:59 left. The Seahawks scored six of the next seven points to draw to within 18 at 51-33 with 7:56 left but that is as close as they would get the rest of the way.
Clark was the lone Seahawk in double figures as junior forward
Marie-Laurence Archambault (Montreal, Quebec/ Montmorency) added seven points, to go with six rebounds, while sophomore guard
Laura Amorosa (Kirkland, Quebec/ Phillips Academy) and redshirt junior guard
Kanifa Hicks (Paterson, NJ/ Passaic Tech) chipped in with four points apiece. Hicks also dished out a game-high five assists which tied her career high.
Clark was 10-of-17 from the field but the rest of the lineup combined to shoot just 8-of-41 (19.5 percent) as Wagner was held to 18-of-58 shooting (31 percent), including 2-of-17 (11.8 percent) from three-pont range while committing 24 turnovers. While the Wagner offense sputtered much of the game, the Seahawks did a yeoman's job defensively, holding Monmouth to 24-of-62 shooting (38.7 percent) for the game.
Supporting Canady's 15-point effort was a 10-point outing from Chevannah Paalvast while Betsy Gadziala, Alysha Womack and Schect added nine points apiece. Wagner out-rebounded Monmouth 45-42.
The Seahawks have a quick turnaround as Wagner travels to Hackensack, NJ to meet the Knights of Fairleigh Dickinson on Monday, January 9 at 7:00 p.m.
NOTES - This was the 63rd meeting between the longtime NEC rivals and the Hawks lead the all-time series 39-24. Wagner was victorious in the lone meeting played between the schools last season, earning a 67-50 win on Feb. 5, 2011 behind 18 points on 8-of-10 shooting by Clark who has close family ties to both Wagner College and Monmouth University. Her mother, Barbara (Paterno) Clark, is a member of the Monmouth Hall of Fame and recorded 1,000 career points and 1,000 career rebounds while also competing on the volleyball and softball teams while her father, Mark Clark, was a three-year letterwinner at Monmouth (1980-83). In addition, Kelly's Aunt (her mother's sister), Grace (Paterno) Solomon, is a member of the Wagner College Hall of Fame. Who scored more than 1,300 career points while pulling down more than 800 career rebounds.
