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Pictured Above: Freshman Lyndsay Rowe, the only Seahawk to start all 11 games, scored a team-high 11 points vs. NJIT.
Photo by Dave Saffran

Newark, NJ – The Wagner women's basketball team took 11-point leads on two separate occasions in the first half, and led by four at halftime, but NJIT fought back in the second half to seize a 58-52 win over the Seahawks in a gritty game at the Fleisher Athletic Center.

The loss drops Wagner's record to 1-10 as the Seahawks complete their non-conference portion of the schedule. On Saturday, the Seahawks will play their first of 18 Northeast Conference (NEC) games when LIU Brooklyn comes knocking at the Spiro Sports Center in a 3:00 pm tip-off.

The Seahawk-Blackbird tussle will be the second game of a doubleheader as the Wagner men's team will entertain North Carolina Central in a 1:00 pm start.

NJIT, which is the lone independent team among all 349 Division I programs, improved its season log to 4-12 with tonight's victory. Physical 6-1 fifth-year senior forward Shakia Robinson, a transfer from UMass, powered her way for 21 points and 13 rebounds to lead the Highlanders, while fellow frontcourt player, 6-0 Uju Nwanko, added seven points and 11 boards. Guard Alyssa Albanese contributed nine points, including a pair of crucial three-point jumpers down the stretch to help assure the victory.

Wagner second-year head coach Lisa Cermignano shook up her starting lineup tonight, deciding on a youthful, guard-oriented combination consisting of sophomore Tessa Wade (Penn Valley, PA/Lower Merion) and redshirt freshman Jazmine Hamlet (Queens, NY/Francis Lewis), along with true freshmen Lyndsay Rowe (South River, NJ/St. John Vianney), Maria Conyers-Jordan (Philadelphia, PA/ Friends' Central) and Jackie Dluhi (Middletown, NJ/Middletown South).

At 5-11, Dluhi was the tallest among the Seahawk starters. Despite the youth and relative lack of size, this starting lineup brought tremendous energy and effort to the floor, as Wagner galloped out to an early 8-2 lead. At the 12:38 mark of the first half and the Seahawks on top by an 11-5 margin following a Rowe three-pointer, the Seahawks' high-scoring backcourt combination of sophomore shooter Jordyn Peck (Shaker Heights, OH/Shaker Heights) and freshman dynamo Jasmine Nwajei (Rockaway Park, NY/Murry Bergtraum) were inserted into the lineup.

A free throw by Hamlet followed by a pair of Rowe three-pointers staked Wagner to an 18-7 lead with 8:31 left in the opening half, prompting NJIT head coach Steve Lanpher to call his second timeout of the half. Following a Robinson layup, Conyers-Jordan hit a driving layup of her own off of a Nwajei feed that again opened an 11-point cushion, this time at 20-9 with 7:50 left in the half.

The Highlanders responded with a 9-2 run to close the half, inching to within 22-18 at intermission. At the halfway mark, Rowe led Wagner with 11 points, keyed by a trio of three-point jumpers while an active Conyers-Jordan added six points and four rebounds in the opening stanza.

Hamlet keyed a 9-4 burst to open the second half, draining a three-pointer on the opening possession to make it 25-18 and hitting a layup at 17:25 that extended the Seahawk lead to 31-22. NJIT then went on an 8-0 burst over the next 2:07, a run that saw the Highlanders receive four points from Robinson in the paint, two Denisa Domiterova free throws, and another inside bucket by Nwanko, a flurry that quickly sliced the deficit to 31-30 with 15:18 left.

A baseline jumper by Dluhi, followed by a Nwajei free throw, pushed the Seahawk lead back to four at 34-30 with 14:43 to go. But NJIT again found an answer, reeling off 10 consecutive points over a span of 2 minutes and 44 seconds, triggered by a three-pointer from guard Martina Matejcikov at the 12:39 mark, that gave NJIT the lead at 36-34. Matejcikov then knocked down a 15-footer with 11:57 left to up the Highlanders' lead to 38-34. Alana Dudley then polished off the run with a pair of free throws at the 11:24 mark to make it a 40-34 game.

Demonstrating a poise and resiliency belying their youth, the Seahawks countered with an impressive 10-0 run of their own in seizing a 44-40 lead with 7:34 left. Nwajei shook free for eight unanswered points with her layup at 11:07 making it 40-36. Following an NJIT turnover, she converted another layup at the 10:27 mark to make it 40-38.

The 5-8 point guard then knotted the game at 40-40 with a layup after Dluhi hit her with a pretty feed in stride, giving Wagner a 42-40 edge with 8:24 to go. Redshirt sophomore Ugo Nwaigwe (Valley Stream, NY/Valley Steam South) also fought for points, as the 6-3 center capped the 10-0 run with a put-back at the 7:34 mark that made it a 44-40 game.

After Robinson made one of two free throws, Peck scored her first points of the night, draining a three-pointer with 5:39 remaining that gave Wagner a 48-43 lead. NJIT countered with a pair of three-pointers, a Dudley trifecta at 4:57, followed by an Albanese trey at 4:25 that gave the Highlanders a brief 49-48 lead.

Peck hit a runner at 4:09 to give Wagner its final lead of the game at 50-49. A Dudley jumper, followed by another three-point dagger by Albanese, this one with 1:31 to go, gave NJIT a 54-50 lead. With 1:14 left, Nwajei picked up her fifth personal foul, which was followed by a pair of Nwanko foul shots with 58 seconds left that made it 56-50. A Hamlet jumper with 52 seconds remaining made it 56-52, but NJIT was able to knock down two late free throws before escapig with a 58-52 win.

Rowe's 11 points led Wagner offensively, while Hamlet matched her career-high of 10, equaling the 10-point outing she had last time out at Stony Brook (12/22). Conyers-Jordan, an athletic 5-9 wing, turned in the most productive effort as a Seahawk. In a career-long 34-minute stint, she posted career highs with nine points and seven rebounds.

Dluhi also logged a career-high in minutes with 34 and she made the most of her opportunities, contributing a career-high six points while grabbing seven rebounds, which were one shy of her career high. Nwaigwe added six points on a perfect 3-of-3 shooting night and added five rebounds in an efficient 13-minute stint. Peck and Nwajei wound up with season lows in scoring with five points apiece but made their presence felt in other ways as Nwajei grabbed six boards and Peck added three assists, one block and one steak.

For the game, Wagner held a 42%-35% edge from the floor. The Highlanders, however benefitted from taking twice as many free throws as the Seahawks. Each team shot just 50% from the charity stripe, but NJIT went there 28 times, converting 14, while Wagner was 7-of-14.

Neither team could find consistent range from deep, with Wagner making 5-of-15 from beyond the arc while the Highlanders were 4-of-14 from three-point range. NJIT, thanks largely to the 24 combined rebounds corralled by the inside tandem of Robinson and Nwanko, held a 45-33 edge on the glass.

NOTES – NJIT now lead the all-time series with Wagner by a 4-3 margin. The previous meeting between the schools also took place in Newark on November 17, 2009, when NJIT came away with a 68-59 victory. Through the first six games of the season, Wagner went with the same starting lineup, comprised of senior forward and co-captain Laura Amorosa (Kirkland, Quebec/Phillips Academy), Nwaigwe, Nwajei, Rowe and Peck. Following those games, Freshman post Taylor Butigian (Rockaway Park, NY/Christ the King), who didn't dress tonight due to illness, gained the start over Nwaigwe in Wagner's next two games. Hamlet has now started the last three games while Dluhi and Conyers-Jordan have started the last two. For Wade, who played a career-long 19 minutes, tonight's start was the first of her career. Rowe is now the lone Seahawk to have started all 11 games this season.