BROOKLYN, N.Y. - The LIU Brooklyn women's basketball team ended the regular season with a big win Monday night in the Steinberg Wellness Center, beating cross-borough rival Wagner, 71-66. With the win, LIU finishes the year at 9-20 overall, and 7-11 in Northeast Conference play. With the win, and Mount St. Mary's loss to Sacred Heart, the Blackbirds clinch the No.7 seed in the Northeast Conference tournament, and will travel to Smithfield, R.I. to take on #2 seed Bryant, Sunday, March 7. Game time is TBD.

The Blackbirds scored first Monday night, and went up quickly on the Seahawks, 7-3. Wagner would come back to take the lead, 9-7, but then the Blackbirds went on a scoring tear. LIU scored 16 straight points to go up 23-9 on the Seahawks, with 1:50 left to play in the first quarter. The Seahawks started to right the ship into the second quarter, and chipped away at LIU's lead slowly. The Blackbirds were able to hold on to the advantage, but led by only six points at halftime, 37-31.

Coming out of the break, Wagner started to get its offense going. In the first half, LIU was able to hold Jasmine Nwajei, the nation's leading scorer, to just ten points. In the first four minutes of the second half, however, Nwajei went to work, scoring 11 points as a part of a 13-0 Wagner run that would put the visiting team up, 44-37.

Midway through the third quarter, however, the Blackbirds started to regain momentum. Sparked by junior Shanovia Dove's three pointer, LIU went on a 10-0 run that would put the Blackbirds back up, 49-46. Junior Brianna Farris had two threes that would give LIU the lead at the end of the third quarter, 54-50.

The fourth quarter was a battle. Wagner outscored LIU, 8-2 in the first five minutes, tying the game up at 58 with 5:07 on the clock. But Dove hit a jumper at 4:22 to put LIU back up, 61-58, and sophomore DeAngelique Waithe had a jumper on the baseline that would keep the Blackbirds up. Nwajei had a layup with 17 seconds left to cut LIU's lead down to just one point, 67-66, but Dove and Farris went a perfect 4-for-4 from the free throw line in the final ten seconds to assure LIU's victory, 71-66.

Junior Shanovia Dove had 20 points and 10 rebounds, for her second collegiate double double. Senior Shanice Vaughan had 12 points, seven assists, six rebounds and three steals, Brianna Farris had 11 points, six rebounds and three assists.