Box Score STATEN ISLAND, NY – The St. Francis Brooklyn women's basketball team (13-10, 7-4) were stunned by the Seahawks of Wagner College (8-14, 6-5) by a score of 87-85 on Monday evening at the Spiro Sports Center. The Terriers dropped a sure game after winning the previous two against Sacred Heart and Fairleigh Dickinson respectively. St. Francis now shifts down two spots in the standings to fourth in the conference. The Wagner Seahawks have now been victorious in three-straight that includes back to back wins over LIU Brooklyn, and most recently, the Terriers. The opposition is now one game behind St. Francis Brooklyn at 6-5 in conference play.
The opposition began the contest with a 10-point lead in the first quarter, which was led by Australian forward Taylah Simmons. The Terriers were outscored 23-22 in the opening stanza. Sophomore
Ally Lassen opened the scoring for the visiting team, and trailed 7-2 within a minute after a 7-0 run from Jordan Hobson alone. The lone bright spot for St. Francis in the first quarter, were the points off turnover, and second chance points where they led in each respective category.
Things turned around for the Terriers in the second quarter that saw them cut a four-point deficit into a seven-point lead with a pair of triples from junior guard
Jade Johnson. The Seahawks would respond quite quickly with their secret weapon off the bench in Janelle Mullen as she tallied eight and assisted on two baskets. A technical foul by the Wagner bench led to four free throws from
Jade Johnson, who would knock down all of them. St. Francis Brooklyn would go into the locker room ahead by three with hopes of pulling out their 11
th victory when leading at the half.
Coming out of the locker room for both teams, only one would hammer down the nail in the coffin, as the visiting team would open the second half on a 9-0 run, led by a trio of
Ally Lassen lay-ups. Senior guard
Maria Palarino knocked home a triple from straight away to give the Terriers a 14-point lead. The largest lead came from the finger tips from
Jade Johnson when she sank home her sixth triple of the contest to give put her team on a 15-3 run in a span of roughly four minutes. The defense for the Terriers began to slowly loosen as Nakylia Carter would sink a triple, and draw a foul to equal five points on a perfect trip to the charity stripe, and would subsequently narrow the lead to seven. The final buzzer of the third stanza saw
Maria Palarino grab a pair of points to move her ahead of Mary Kawas-Rotolo for 15
th all-time on the program's scoring list.
A double-digit lead for St. Francis Brooklyn slowly disappeared as the defense for the Terriers became non-existent quicker than it should. Led by Australian combination guard Taylah Simmons, she single-handedly defeated the Terriers by notching 13 points and shooting six-of-seven from the field. In addition, she would grab three rebounds and assist on one basket. Close calls included a low-post lay-up for
Jade Johnson who put the Terriers ahead by a long point with 10 seconds to go. End to end action occurred as Simmons would successfully convert on an open jumper underneath the basket for a back and forth lead 86-85. St. Francis had one final shot that went to Johnson, but she missed on the lay-up, while
Dominique Ward couldn't secure the rebound. Wagner ended the contest on a 10-2 run in the final 4:33 of the game.
Statistically, the Terriers converted 26-of-63 from the field, which equals 41.3% The opposition shot nine percent better as they converted approximately 50% of their shots. Wagner won the battle in the paint 42-34, and scored two more second chance points 19-17. The bench for the Seahawks came through as Janelle Mullen scored the teams 20 out of 23 points. The lone two for St. Francis came from
Abby Anderson from the free-throw line in the first quarter. Finally, the Terriers had nearly a perfect day at the charity stripe, where they converted 25-of-26 from the line.
HOW IT HAPPENED:
St. Francis Brooklyn – 85 | Wagner - 87
- Junior guard Jade Johnson tallied 30 points which included seven triples. Johnson also went a perfect seven-for-seven from the charity stripe. She assisted on four, and grabbed two rebounds in 39 minutes of action.
- Sophomore forward Ally Lassen set a career high in points by scoring 18 on the evening. She also grabbed seven rebounds, blocked three, stole one. In addition, Lassen converted a perfect six-of-six free throws from the line in 29 minutes of play.
- Senior guard Maria Palarino registered 16 points, grabbed seven rebounds, and assisted on two baskets. She continued her dominance from the charity stripe, as she converted three-of-four from the line in 29 minutes of game play.
- Graduate guard Dominique Ward tallied 10 point, converted on four-of-10 from the field, and blocked two. Ward grabbed four rebounds, and stole one in 31 minutes of play.
- Senior guard Amy O'Neill assisted on 13 baskets, tallied nine points, grabbed six rebounds, and stole five in 40 minutes of action.
UP NEXT:
The Terriers return to the Pope for their second to last home stand of the regular season as they welcome in the Blackbirds of LIU Brooklyn on Saturday, February 16 for a 1 p.m. matinee on alumni afternoon.
