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Staten Island, NY - For the second straight year, the Wagner women's basketball team will host a marquee, national program when the Seahawks host Big 10 member and Rutgers, led by Hall of Fame head coach C. Vivian Stringer, on Tuesday, November 25 at 7:00 p.m., one year after the Green & White hosted No. 7 Kentucky of the SEC.

The Scarlet Knights enter tonight's game ranked No. 21 in the latest AP Poll, are 3-0 on the young season following a 64-57 win at LSU on Sunday, and boast the nation's longest active winning streak of eight games. Rutgers is the alma mater of Wagner first-year assistant coach Vicky Picott, who starred for the Scarlet Knights from 1987-1991. A 1992 Rutgers graduate, Picott ranks fourth in school history in career points (1,792), third in rebounds (1,029) and fifth in steals (225). A four-year starter at Rutgers, Picott was named the Atlantic-10 Freshman of the Year following the 1998 season.

Picott earned All-Conference honors three times and was a two-time Most Valuable Player of her team. Picott also earned the New Jersey Sports Writers Association Player of the Year and District II Regional All-America honors following her senior season. The exclamation point on her Scarlet Knight career came on April 26, 1998 when she was inducted into the Rutgers Hall of Fame.

In addition to Rutgers, the Seahawks have already faced Atlantic 10 member VCU and No. 7 Maryland, and will have upcoming tests at St. John's (Nov. 30) and at Penn State (Dec. 7).

"From a competition standpoint, we have to play the best," said Seahawk third-year head coach Lisa Cermignano, "and that's not going to change. As the Wagner head coach, I feel a responsibility to be an ambassador for women's college basketball on Staten Island and I think bringing teams like Kentucky and Rutgers is a great thing for the community and for the young girls all across the Island."

As was the case on November 10, 2013 when Kentucky arrived at the Spiro Sports Center, Tuesday's night's matchup with the Scarlet Knights will mark the home opener for Wagner, which opened the 2014-2015 last weekend with losses at VCU and No. 8 Maryland.

In front of a loud, boisterous crowd of 1,847, the largest to ever witness a women's basketball game in the history of the Spiro Center, guard Jasmine Nwajei (Rockaway Park, NY/Murry Bergtraum) scored the game's first five points en route to a 19-point effort and the young, feisty and new-look Seahawks brought the fight to Kentucky before the nation's seventh-ranked team eventually pulled away for a 96-57 win.

Nwajei's explosive start was a portend of things to come for the 5-8 New York City product who went on to earn 2014 NEC Rookie-of-the-Year honors en route to leading Wagner to its first NEC Tournament appearance in four years.

In 2-0 Rutgers, Wagner will face a team that won the 2014 WNIT Championship.

"Our players get excited about it, for sure," Cermignano continued. "Last year, we proved everybody wrong. They picked us 10th and we finished a lot higher than that because of our preseason schedule. We went and faced some of the toughest teams in the country and we got into conference play, we were playing at a different level.  And it's the same thing this year. In order to build a foundation for a program, it's not about how many wins you get, it's about having your team prepared for conference play, and being prepared to get to the NCAA Tournament."

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