STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. - Wagner defeated Mount St. Mary's 65-54 in Northeast Conference (NEC) women's basketball action on Saturday.

Mary Dunn (Whippany, N.J./Morris Catholic) paced the Mount (6-18, 3-10 NEC) with 12 points and seven rebounds. Ashley Christie (Miamisburg, Ohio/Archbishop Alter) also posted 12 points and Selina Mann (Gainesville, Va./Battlefield) chipped in 10 points in the loss.

Megan Mahoney fueled the Seahawks (11-13, 4-9 NEC) with 18 points while Kelly Clark (16 points) and Stephanie McBride (14 points) also found double figures in the winning effort.

Wagner took the lead in the final eight minutes of the first half and never looked back for its third-straight win against Mount St. Mary's and to take the opening leg in the NEC's Rivalry Week.

Wagner jumped out to an early 5-0 advantage before the Mount rallied to tie the game and then two teams battled back and forth until the Seahawks closed out the first half on a 13-6 run to take a 29-22 lead going into the locker room.

With the score tied at 13, Clark started the run with a traditional 3-point play at 7:55 before Sandra Andresson (Tallinn, Estonia/Audentes School) hit a jumper at 7:28. Wagner then scored the next five points thanks to a 3-pointer by McBride at 6:48 and a jumper by Marie-Laurence Archambault at 6:03 for a 24-18 advantage.

Christie momentarily halted the run with a layup at 5:47 to trim the margin to 24-20, but the Seahawks rolled off the next five points to grab a 29-20 margin. Clark started the spurt with back-to-back layups at 5:39 and 4:09 before Mahoney hit the frontend of two free throws at 1:43. Christie converted two charity tosses to cut the deficit to 29-22 at the break.

In the second half, the Mountaineers cut the margin to six points with 13:01 on the clock after an Andresson 3-pointer. Wagner then scored the next 10 points and the Mount could not cut it to single digits the rest of the way.

Dunn moved into 19th place in program history with 1,016 career points and into fifth place for career rebounds with 802. The senior became the fifth player in program history to register 1,100 points and 800 rebounds in a career. Christie notched double figures for the fifth-consecutive Saturday.

Mount St. Mary's and Wagner will both travel to Emmitsburg to complete the NEC Rivalry Week series. Game time is 7 p.m.