Box Score (PDF)
Brooklyn, NY –Trailing by 24 points late in the third quarter, the Wagner women's basketball team staged a furious comeback before running out of time, falling 74-69 at LIU Brooklyn despite 34 points from
Sierra Clark.
With the hard-luck loss, the Seahawks fall to 3-12 on the season, 1-5 in Northeast Conference (NEC) play while the Blackbirds improve to 6-9 overall, 2-2 in league.
Wagner, which trailed 40-28 at halftime, fell behind by a count of 60-36 with 2:52 left in the third quarter following a layup by LIU's Deangelique Waithe. The Seahawks then scored the final eight points of the quarter to make it a 60-44 game entering the fourth.
In the final quarter, Wagner outscored the Blackbirds 25-12, which made it a 33-12 run overall, to draw within three at 72-69 with three seconds to play. The Green & White were forced to foul and Drew Winter knocked down a pair of free throws as LIU Brooklyn held on for the 74-69 win.
For the game, the 5-11 Clark, a graduate student from Hughesville, MD, finished 14-of-22 from the floor and grabbed 10 rebounds in posting her seventh double-double of the season. Clark, who was recruited to and played for
Heather Jacobs at Adelphi University where she went on to earn Division II All-American honors last season, is now averaging 17.9 points and 8.7 rebounds per game. Through 16 games, she has amassed seven 20-point-plus games, and has 23 double-digit scoring efforts to her credit, in addition to those seven double-doubles.
The Green & White were able to create all of this late-game excitement despite being without the services of redshirt freshman guard, as the Seahawks' second-leading scorer (9.3-point average) and top three-point shooter (27 made 3-pointers), was under the weather and unable to play.
After falling behind by that 24-point, 60-36 deficit, Wagner outscored 8-0 over the final 2:32 of the third quarter, with four of those points coming on a pair of Clark layups. The other four points came on free throws as redshirt freshman guard
Taylah Simmons and junior guard
Nakylia Carter each went 2-for-2 from the charity stripe during this stretch.
In the fourth quarter, it was all Wagner. In perhaps their best single quarter of the entire season, the Seahawks were led by Clark's 12 points, Carter and freshman guard
Alayshia Dailey accounted for five and four points, respectively over the 10 minutes, with Simmons and freshman guard
Khaleah Dixon-Edwards hitting for two apiece during the comeback.
The Green & White outshot the Blackbirds 57% (8-14) to 23% (4-17) in the final quarter. Playing with tremendous energy and passion, the Seahawks out-rebounded LIU 17-4 over the final 10 minutes, which led to advantages of 12-0 in points in the paint and 8-0 in second-chance points.
In addition to being without Lenahan for the entire game, Wagner was also forced to play all but seven seconds of the final quarter without senior guard
Tanasia Russell. The South Jersey native took an elbow to the nose from LIU's Seneca Edwards at the 9:53 mark of the fourth. After a video replay review, Edwards was charged with a flagrant foul, as Simmons stepped in and sank two free throws to make it a 60-46 game.
Wagner began to whittle away at the Blackbirds' lead over the next five minutes, cutting it the deficit to seven points on a pair of Carter free throws with 4:07 to play. After LIU's Denisha Petty-Evans knocked down a 10-foot jumper to push the lead back to nine, at 66-57 with 3:55 left.
The Seahawks then went on a furious 12-3 burst, with seven of those points coming from Clark, including a top-of-the-key three-pointer with three seconds to play which made it 72-69.
A key to the Wagner comeback bid was the Seahawks' proficiency at the foul line as the Green & White went 18-of-25 from the charity stripe, good for a 72% clip, which is their third-best performance of the season. The 18 made free throws were a season high while the 25 free throw attempts were tied for the second-highest on the year.
Simmons wound up matching her career high with 15 points, including 7-of-8 accuracy from foul line. The 6-0 guard added eight rebounds, tied her career high with four assists while logging a full 40 minutes for the first time as well.
Carter, meanwhile, another first-year Seahawk, had her best game of the season, finishing with a career-high nine points and dishing out four assists, which tie for a season best. The 5-8 junior college transfer from Oklahoma accomplished these numbers while playing a career-high 39 minutes.
The short-handed Seahawks also needed 37 minutes from Clark and 34 minutes from Dixon-Edwards, which matched her career high.
While the 34 points are the most that Clark has scored here in her first season as a Seahawk, they are not her overall career high as she had 36 points while playing for Adelphi vs. St. Michaels on January 9, 2016.
Wagner opened the scoring in the contest with a layup from Clark. After a three-pointer from LIU's Jeydah Johnson put the Blackbirds ahead, 7-4, the Seahawks went on a 7-0 run to take an 11-7 lead, that was capped by a
Nakylia Carter layup off a feed from Dixon-Edwards.
The Blackbirds then found their rhythm, outscoring Wagner 28-8 that put them in command, 35-19. The Seahawks scrapped back, closing out the second quarter by scoring nine of the final 14 points to trail 40-28 at the intermission.
Clark led the way for Wagner with 16 first-half points on an efficient 7-of-10 shooting from the field, which included a three-pointer. Simmons added nine points and a team-best four caroms in the opening stanza in 20 minutes of action. The Seahawks shot 44.0 percent from the field while the Blackbirds connected on 50.0 percent from the floor and held a 21-11 edge on the boards. Twenty of Wagner's 28 first-half points came from inside the paint.
The Seahawks will complete their two-game local set on Monday when they travel to St. Francis Brooklyn for a 1:00 p.m. matinee tip vs. the Terriers on Martin Luther King Day.
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