Staten Island, NY - The undermanned Wagner women's basketball team, which had just six players available due to a rash of injuries, delivered a gallant effort vs. Yale tonight, leading by seven in the first half and taking a 40-40 tie into the fourth quarter until the Bulldogs rallied late for a 66-52 win at the Spiro Sports Center.
 
Yale won its fourth straight game in improving to 5-2 on the season but this one did not come easily in a contest that featured 13 lead changes and three ties. With the loss, Wagner falls to 1-5.
 
The Seahawks were paced by sophomore guard Julia McClure (Secaucus, NJ / Secaucus), who matched her career high with 15 points, 14 points from junior guard Tanasia Russell (Vineland, NJ / Vineland), while freshman guard Kellie Crouch (North Brunswick, NJ / St. John Vianney) tallied a career-high 11.
 
Trailing by a 13-12 count early in the second quarter, Wagner went on an 8-0 run, keyed by consecutive three-pointers by Crouch and McClure, as the Seahawks built their biggest lead of the game at 20-13, with McClure's trey at the 7:18 mark forcing the Bulldogs to call timeout. Yale was able to counter with a 10-4 spurt in narrowing the Seahawk lead to 24-23, heading into the locker room at halftime.
 
Wagner maintained the lead for most of the third quarter before Jen Berkowitz, who led all scorers with 20 points, hit a running one-hander with 53 seconds left in the period to forge the 40-40 tie through three quarters.
 
In the fourth quarter, Yale shot 64.3 percent (9-of-14) from the field in outscoring the Seahawks 26-12, pulling away for the 14-point win.
 
All six Seahawks who saw the floor found the scoring column. In addition to the double-digit outings turned in by McClure, Russell and Crouch, freshman Corinn Baggs (Staten Island, NY / Staten Island Academy) added five points while senior Jackie Dluhi (Middletown, NJ / Middletown South) and freshman Kerstie Phills (Charlotte, NC / Charlotte Christian) chipped in with four and three points, respectively. McClure's 15-point night came on 6-of-10 shooting while Crouch's 11-point game was triggered by a 3-for-6 shooting night from three-point range.
 
In addition to the game-high 20 points from Berkowitz, Yale also received double-digit scoring outings from Tamara Simpson, with 19, and Lena Munzer, who finished with 12.

For the game, Yale held a slim 39.4%-36.5% edge in shooting while owning a 43-38 advantage in the rebounding department.  The Bulldogs held the upper hand in points in the paint, 34-22, and points off turnovers, 12-11. Despite having just one player available off the bench all evening, the scrappy Seahawks managed to hold a 14-8 lead in bench scoring.
 
McClure and Crouch never left the floor on this night, each logging 40-minute games. Baggs played 36 minutes, Dluhi 33, while Russell and Phills saw 29 and 22 minutes of playing time, respectively.

Wagner is next in action on Saturday, December 3 when the Seahawks host their second consecutive Ivy League opponent in Penn. The matchup between the Seahawk and Quakers will tip off at 1:00 p.m. and the game can be seen live online via necfrontrow.com.

NOTE: Tonight's game, scheduled to tip off at 7:05 p.m., did not tip off until 7:52 p.m. The 47-minute delay was due to the late-arriving Yale team bus as the Bulldogs navigated their way from their New Haven, CT based campus.  
 
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