STATEN ISLAND, NY - Aja Boyd and Shanovia Dove combined for 49 points and 19 rebounds to push the LIU Brooklyn women's basketball team past the Wagner College Seahawks Monday evening in the season finale for both teams.

Boyd's tallies (28 points and 15 rebounds) were both new career highs for the newcomer from Petersburg, Va. while Dove (21 points, four rebounds) recorded her 11th game of 20 or more points while wearing an LIU jersey for the last time.

LIU (6-23, 5-13 NEC) needed every bit of the duo's production to withstand a Wagner team (4-25, 3-15 NEC) playing for pride and in front of their home crowd.

Both teams failed to find separation in the first 10 minutes of the contest. LIU made the first push by scoring the first seven points of the game before the Seahawks answered right back with six straight of their own - all within the opening six minutes. By the beginning of the second period, LIU was nursing a one-point advantage, 13-12.

The Blackbirds began to pull away thanks to Boyd's consistently and her teammates' defensive pressure. After Wagner started the second with a three-pointer at the 9:34 mark, LIU proceeded to close out the quarter on a 16-1 run. Boyd scored more than half of the team's points in the second ten minutes (9 of 16) and was tied with the entire Seahawk team (16 points) by halftime. The scoring outburst - which put LIU up 29-16 at the half - coincided with a defensive effort that created five turnovers, blocked two shots and outrebounded the opposition, 11-6, in the second.

A layup by Dove would swell LIU's lead to a game-high 17 points with 3:48 left in the third quarter before Wagner began to close the gap.

Wagner took about four minutes to score 16 unanswered points of their own to pull within one of the Blackbirds (45-44) with 9:44 remaining. Over the next six minutes, neither team would hold an edge of more than four points. However, Wagner would take their lead last, pulling ahead 53-49 after team leader Kerstie Phills scored her team-high 19th point at the 3:47 mark. With time winding down, Dove took her turn leading the squad ahead.

The senior from Palm Beach, Fla. closed the game for LIU, scoring nine of her 10 fourth quarter points in the final three and a half minutes to keep the Seahawks at bay and the Blackbird faithful at ease. She hit the eventual game-winner on a jumper at the 1:06 mark and put the game out of reach with a pair of clutch free throws with four seconds left.