Pictured Above: Junior guard Africa Williams (photo by Dave Saffran)
Staten Island, NY - After earning a 62-60 victory over the College of Staten Island (CSI) on Tuesday, which marked the first win in the
Heather Jacobs era, the Wagner women's basketball team is right back at it on Thursday when the Seahawks host Towson in a 7:00 p.m. tip at the Spiro Sports Center.
The Green & White, who dropped their opener by a 68-45 count at NJIT on Saturday, is 1-1 on the young season while the Tigers, who compete in the talent-rich Colonial Athletic Association (CAA), are 1-0 following a season-opening 90-56 win over UMass Lowell on November 11.
Through two games, the Seahawks have been led in scoring by junior
Africa Williams (Brooklyn, NY / Banneker), a transfer from Mohawk Valley Community College, who checks in at 12.0 points per game. Fellow junior guard Tanasia Russel (Vineland, NJ / Vineland), is at 11.0 ppg. After scoring 11 points, including seven down the stretch, in her first appearance of the season vs. CSI. Williams and Russell are tied for the team leading in rebounding at 4.0 boards per game.
Freshman guard
Sydney Sabino (Rumson, NJ / Rumson-Fairhaven) is at 9.5 ppg. and is a sizzling 46.2% from three-point range on 6-of-13 shooting from beyond the arc. Classmate
Kellie Crouch (North Brunswick, NJ / St. John Vianney), who tallied 10 points in her collegiate debut vs. NJIT, is next in scoring at 7.5 ppg.
Towson's 34-point margin of victory over UMass Lowell, was the largest margin of victory for a Towson team under head coach
Niki Reid Geckeler and was also the largest win for the Tigers in 10 years.
Senior guard
Raven Bankston poured in 31 points in the win over UMass Lowell. It was Bankston's second 30+ point performance as a Tiger and her seventh game with 30 or more points overall (five came at Delaware State). Bankston went 11-for-15 from the field for a 73.3 field goal percentage and tied her career-high with five three-pointers made in the game. She has now scored in double figures 61 times in her career and 30 of those games have seen the Detroit, MI native score 20 or more points.
This will mark the first time that Wagner and Towson have ever met on the hardwood. The Tigers are led by fourth-year head coach Nikki Reid Deckeler, who previously served five years as the head coach at Howard following a standout playing career at Georgetown.
Heather Jacobs - First Season
Heather Jacobs, who has built a pair of championship programs during her nine-year coaching career, was introduced as the ninth head coach in Wagner College women's basketball history on April 20, 2016. Widely regarded as a rising star in the coaching profession, Jacobs has served the last six seasons as head coach at Adelphi University in Garden City, NY, where she led the Panthers to unprecedented success during her tenure. The high water mark for Jacobs at Adelphi came in 2014-15 when she led her team to a 28-4 record and an 18-2 mark in the NE-10 Conference, claiming the program's first-ever league championship and hosting the NCAA Division II East Regional. Adelphi was ranked as high as No. 3 in the nation and tied a program record for most wins in a season, and Jacobs earned ECAC Division II and All-Met Coach of the Year honors by the Metropolitan Basketball Writers Association (MBWA). Jacobs came to Adelphi, where she also served as assistant athletic director, following a three year stint as the head coach/senior women's administrator at Daniel Webster College, a Division III institution in Nashua, NH. In 2009-10, she was named the New England Collegiate Conference (NECC) Coach of the Year after a school record best finish of 20-6 and a regular season conference title.
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