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New York, NY - The Wagner women's basketball team rode the steady hand of senior Marie-Laurence Archambault and sophomore Stephanie Blais and received a late outburst from freshman Jordyn Peck, who scored 12 straight points down the stretch, as the Seahawks pulled away for a 61-47 win at Columbia, notching the first win under head coach Lisa Cermignano.

On the heels of Friday's night's hard-fought season-opening 65-62 home loss to Army, the Seahawks even their record at 1-1. With the loss, the Lions fall to 0-3 on the young season.

For most of the game this was a nip and tuck affair. Wagner jumped out to early leads of 10-3, 13-6 and 15-8, the latter coming with 10:18 left in the half following a pair of Archambault free throws. The Lions then responded with a 10-0 run in taking their first lead of the night on a Bailey Ott three-pointer with 7:53 to go in the half, putting Columbia on top 18-15.

Blais then rattled off four straight points on a layup followed by a jumper to put the Green & White back on top by a 19-18 count at the 6:10 mark. A three-pointer by junior forward Laura Amorosa (Kirkland, Quebec/ Phillips Academy) at the 4:38 mark gave Wagner a 27-24 lead before Columbia answered with a 5-0 run over the final 3:53 to forge a 29-27 halftime lead.

The Lions then opened the second half with a three-pointer by Caitlyn Unsworth and a jumper in the paint from Courtney Bradford to make it a 10-0 run spanning the halves, which gave Columbia its biggest lead of the game at 34-27. Wagner would answer right back with a Blais three-point that ignited an 11-2 Seahawk run, putting Wagner back into the lead at 38-36 with 15:08 left.

The run featured the first three career points for 6-4 freshman center Emily Adams  (Cumming, GA/ Buford), jumpers by sophomore guard Jacqui Thompson (Southampton, PA/ St. Basil Academy) and senior guard Veronick Fournier (Gatineau,, Quebec/ Montmorency), and was capped by three Archambault free throws at 15:08, as she was fouled in the act of shooting,  which gave Wagner a two-point cushion.

The game ebbed back and forth over the next several minutes until a  free throw by Columbia's Tyler Simpson cut the Lion deficit to 47-44 with 7:18 left. But that's as close as Lions would get as Peck, the reigning NEC Rookie of the Week, went to work with her personal 12-0 run that sealed the victory.

The creative 5-6 left-handed guard started it off by hitting a driving layup at 6:19. Peck would drill a huge three-pointer from the left baseline at 5:11 that gave the Seahawks their biggest lead at 52-44. After a Bradford jumper made it 52-46 at the 4:52 mark. Peck drove hard through the lane and was fouled with 3:37 to go.

Her two free throws pushed it back to an eight-point game before Peck hit the final dagger, a rainbow three off an Archambault feed that gave the Seahawks an insurmountable 57-46 edge with 3:06 to go.

Just for good measure, Peck would nail a jumper at 1:57 that made it 59-46 as Wagner would go on to post the 61-47 win.

Archambault and Blais tied for game-high scoring honors with 13 points apiece while Peck had 12, all of which came that electric 4:26 span from the 6:19 mark to the 1:57 mark of the second half as the Seahawks won going away.

In the first half, Wagner mixed in a zone defense on several possessions but played man-to-man virtually the entire second half which limited Columbia a cold 6-of-26 (23%) from the floor. For the game, the stifling brand of Seahawk defense held Columbia to 28% shooting while Wagner hit 42 percent from the field.

In addition to the double-digit scoring efforts from the troika of Archambault, Blais and Peck, Wagner received valuable contributions from Fournier (nine points, seven rebounds) and Amorosa (six points, five rebounds) while Adams and sophomore center Ugo Nwaigwe (Valley Stream, NY/ Valley Stream South) finished with three points each. Thompson dished out a team-high four assists to go with two points and three rebounds.

Senior Brittany Simmons led the Lions with 11 points to go along with seven rebounds and four steals, while Bradford added 10 points, six rebounds and two blocks. A pair of freshmen made their presence felt for Columbia as Ott narrowly missed a double-double with nine points and rebounds while classmate Sara Mead recorded nine points, a team-high four assists, and three steals.

Wagner will face a steep test next when the Seahawks travel to the Iron City to meet the University of Pittsburgh of the BIG EAST on Tuesday, November 20 in a 7:00 pm tip-off.

NOTES - The victory breaks a 19-game losing streak for the Seahawks as they closed the 2011-2012 season with 18 consecutive losses. The last time Wagner was in the win column was on Dec. 3, 2011 when Wagner posted a 49-45 home win over St. Francis (NY). 

Amorosa gained the start in place of senior forward Chanez Robinson (Newark, NJ/ Shabazz/ Northeastern) who sustained an ankle injury in practice on Tuesday. For Amorosa, it marked the third start of her career as she heard her name announced twice as a sophomore last season, most recently at Bryant in the season finale on February 27, 2012.

This was the 23^rd meeting between the schools and the Seahawks now own a 16-7 lead in the all-time series.

Columbia was one of the two teams that Wagner defeated last year en route to a 2-27 record. The Seahawks knocked off the Lions 66-54 on November 16, 2011. The the other win came by that 49-45 count at home over St. Francis (NY) on December 3, 2011, a game  that had marked the fewest points allowed by the Seahawks until tonight.

The Seahawks now own an all-time record of 22-17 vs. Ivy League teams. In addition to the 16-7 mark against Columbia, Wagner is 5-7 vs. Princeton, 1-1 vs. Dartmouth and 0-2 vs. Harvard.

Before tonight, the last time Wagner had defeated an opponent by 14 or more points was on January 28, 2010 when the Green & White posted a 72-58 home victory over Quinnipiac. 

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Photography by Dave Saffran