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Emmitsburg, MD – Sophomore guard
Jasmine Nwajei (Rockaway Park, NY/Murry Bergtraum), the nation's leading scorer, poured in 29 points but the Seahawks were edged 68-65 at Mount St. Mary's in a hotly-contested battle that featured seven lead changes and six ties this afternoon.
With the loss, the Green & White fall to 4-13 in the Northeast Conference (NEC) and are eliminated from the conference tournament, and are 6-22 overall. With the victory, the Mountaineers secure one of the eight berths in the league tournament, improving to 6-11 in conference and 8-20 overall.
Junior guard
Jordyn Peck (Shaker Heights, OH/Shaker Heights) finished with 12 points while freshman guard
Tanasia Russell (Vineland, NJ/Vineland) continued to be a spark off the bench, tossing in 12 on 4-of-7 shooting.
Jenn Carney led three Mount players in double figures with 23 points, while Sarifina Arthur-Williams and Jacqueline Brewer added 16 and 14 points, respectively. Arthur-Williams, a 6-0 center, also grabbed a game-high 12 rebounds in recording a double-double.
This was the second close, down-to-the-wire, contest that these teams have played this season. Back on January 5 at the Spiro Sports Center, Brewer's 10-foot baseline jumper with two seconds to play allowed the Mountaineers to escape with a 60-58 win that night.
In today's matchup, Arthur-Williams closed out a back-and-forth first half with a layup at the buzzer to give the Mount a 27-26 halftime lead. Wagner then stormed out of the gates quickly in the second half, with three-point baskets by sophomore guard
Lyndsay Rowe (South River, NJ/St. John Vianney), Peck and Nwajei, which keyed a 14-4 run that gave the Seahawks their biggest lead of the game of nine, at 40-31, with 16:46 left to play.
The Mountaineers slowly cut into the Wagner lead, finally regaining the advantage at 52-51 on a Carney three-pointer at the 7:35 mark. The Seahawks tied the game at 54-54 on a Russell trey with 5:57 left, and again at 60-60 off a steal and ensuing layup by Nwajei at 2:07.
Mount, however, countered with six straight points, all from the free throw line, with Arthur-Williams going 4-of-4 and Carney hitting 2-of-2, in building the lead to 66-60 before hanging on for the 68-65 win.
Wagner closes out the 2014-2015 season on Monday, March 2 in Moon Township, PA when they take on the Robert Morris University Colonials.
NOTES – With her 29 points today, Nwajei upped her school-record single-season scoring output to 690 points. On Monday vs. Bryant, the 5-8 guard became the Seahawks' all-time single-season scoring leader when she passed Hall of Fame member Stephanie Samuels, who tallied 654 points during the 1985-86 campaign. Nwajei is now up to 1,207 career points scored, which placed her in 15
th place on the Wagner all-time list. Peck, meanwhile, is in 16
th place, having scored 1,196 career points.