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Hackensack, NJ – Sophomore guard Jasmine Nwajei (Rockaway Park, NY/Murry Bergtraum) poured in a game-high 31 points  and sophomore guard Lyndsay Rowe (South River, NJ/St. John Vianney) scored all 15 of her points in the second half before Kelsey Cruz hit a driving layup with two seconds left to play as was Fairleigh Dickinson escaped with a 72-70 win.
 
With 1.6 seconds remaining, Wagner, which overcame a 16-point first-half deficit in taking the lead late, had a chance to pull out the win as the Seahawks quickly worked the ball up court but a three-point try by redshirt-sophomore guard Jazmine Hamlet (New York, NY/Francis Lewis) bounded off the front of the rim as the final buzzer sounded.
 
With the loss, the Seahawks fall to 4-12 overall and 2-3 in Northeast Conference (NEC) play. Of their three NEC losses, two have now come in the waning seconds as Wagner dropped a 60-58 home decision to Mount St. Mary's on January 5. In notching their first league win of the season after, opening 0-4 in conference play, the Knights now sport an identical 4-12 season mark. 
 
Nwajei shot 13-of-28 from the floor en route to her 31-point output, including 3-of-7 from three-point range, in addition to dishing out a game-high seven assists, grabbing seven rebounds and coming up with three steals. After going scoreless in the first half, the 5-8, left-handed Rowe went 5-of-7 from the floor following intermission, 2-of-4 from three-point range and a perfect 3-of-3 from the free throw line in totaling her 15 second-half points.
 
While Nwajei and Rowe did most of their damage from the perimeter, FDU's 6-1 junior enter Erika Livermore was active throughout in the low post, finishing with a team-high 22 rebounds while pulling down a game-high 21 rebounds. In addition to recording the double-double, Livermore was a presence on the defensive end, finishing with a game-high four blocked shots.
 
FDU built its biggest lead of the game, a 16-point margin at 38-22 following a Livermore layup with 4:16 remaining in the opening half. Wagner closed the half on a 6-2 spurt in reducing the halftime deficit to 12 at 40-28.
 
In the second half, Rowe got things going, tallying 12 of Wagner's first 19 points, capped by a three-pointer off a Nwajei assist at the 12:04 mark that made it a 52-47 game.  A three-pointer by Nwajei with 8:56 to go drew the Seahawks to within one at 58-57 before Rowe forged the game's first tie since the early going, , at 59-59,  on a pair of free throws at the 7:17 mark.
 
With the Seahawks trailing 60-59, sophomore forward Taylor Butigian (Rockaway Park, NY/Christ the King) knocked down a trey after receiving a kick-out pass from Nwajei at the 6:49 mark, on her way to a season-high nine-point outing, giving Wagner its first lead of the game at 62-60.
 
After Wagner took a 68-65 lead after Hamlet made a pair of free throws with just 2:21 left. FDU answered with a clutch three-point jumper by Amanda Andrades with 2:11 to go, knotting the game at 68-68. The Seahawks then went on top 70-68 on a Nwajei layup with 1:27 remaining. Following an FDU turnover, Livermore came up with a big block of a Nwajei runner in the lane with 49 seconds left. Nine seconds later, Tiffany Grant was fouled and went 2-for-2 from the line in tying the game at 70-70.
 
On their ensuing possession, the Seahawks worked the ball around the perimeter before Grant came up with a steal at the 11-second mark. FDU then called timeout with five seconds left, and out of the timeout, Cruz got loose in the lane for what would prove to be the game-winning layup with two seconds to go.
 
Peck added seven points for the Seahawks while Hamlet delivered another gritty effort for Wagner, finishing with a game-high eight rebounds along with six points. In support of Livermore's 22-point outing, Grant wound up with 17 for FDU while Cruz had 15.
 
Wagner held a 37.1 percent to 35.4 percent edge in shooting while FDU owned a 46-42 edge in the rebounding department.
 
The Seahawks take to the road again on Monday, January 19 when Wagner travels to Bryant to meet the Bulldogs in a 5:00 pm Martin Luther King Day tip-off.