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By John Walters
Senior Sports Writer
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Jasmine Nwajei does not sprint up and down a basketball court like a terrestrial creature. The 5-foot-8-inch junior guard at Wagner College in Staten Island glides across the hardwood like a sprite, as if the soles of her pink Nikes are barely touching the court. There is an effortlessness to her flow, à la Stephen Curry, a balletic grace that puts both observers and opponents in a trance.
Nwajei is the nation's leading scorer in women's college basketball. She is also a zephyr. "As a coaching staff, we'll giggle watching her virtually beat all five defenders by herself," says Seahawk coach Lisa Cermignano. "She's so smooth. She can't be guarded at this level."
On Monday evening inside a gym at Long Island University Brooklyn, the nation's leading scorer poured in 37 points while often being guarded by two to three defenders. In front of a sparse crowd, the Seahawks lost 71-66 in their final game of what has been an arduous (5-24) season. Before Christmas Wagner lost three starters to season-ending injuries and it has lost four more players since. Seven Seahawks suited up for the season finale. "We haven't scrimmaged five-on-five in practice in three weeks," Cermignano said last weekend. "I don't think people understand how difficult it is for Jas. She has two, three even four people guarding her during games."
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As they should. The Rockaway Park, New York, native has eclipsed the 30-point barrier 15 times and the 40-point mark five times this season. On January 24 she scored 53 points against Sacred Heart and eight days later drained 52 at Saint Francis Brooklyn. Remarkably, Nwajei had more 40-minute games this season (eight) than she did 40-point games and never did she face a defense that was not designed specifically to stop her.
"We've seen everything this season," says Cermignano. "Box-and-one, triangle-and-two. I've seen defenses keep four defenders in the paint for when she drives to the hoop. Jas tells me, 'Coach, I'd love to go one-on-one with these girls.' I tell her, 'Jas, it's not going to happen. Not this year.'"
On Monday night, Nwajei attempted one shot for every minute she played: 40. She is streaky. In the first quarter, she scored one point, shooting a free throw on a technical foul. In the third quarter, she put up 15 points as the Seahawks went on a 13-0 run. "I like being the one in charge on the floor," says Nwajei, whose shooting form—both hands over the right shoulder—will remind old-timers of Jamaal Wilkes of the Los Angeles Lakers. "There are times where coach will just tell me, 'Jas, break the press and let's get a score.'"
The Seahawks play Division I basketball, but even though Nwajei led the nation in scoring for much of the season, none of those performances were nationally televised. The zephyr might have been dazzling audiences on a grander stage—while almost certainly shooting and scoring less—if it were not for a mighty storm: Sandy. "We knew that it was going to be a serious storm from the news reports that day," says her mother, Eva Rivera, who lives in Rockaway Park. "I gathered a few things from the house that morning before leaving for work. I didn't realize at the time that it would be two months before we could move in again."
Far Rockaway, aka the Rockaways, is a peninsula on the outskirts of the borough of Queens. It is a sandbar, actually, a roughly six-mile swath of land that separates the Atlantic Ocean from, among other parts of Queens, John F. Kennedy International Airport. A subway line, the A, runs there, but it is only accessible by car via one of two bridges. The Rockaways are just close enough to Manhattan to be convenient to commuters and just remote enough to offer the sensation, when the weather complies, of a beach bum sanctuary…within sight of the Freedom Tower.
In October 2012, when Sandy struck, the Rockaways resembled a postapocalyptic inferno. Streets and yards were underwater while entire neighborhoods went up in flames as fire engines were unable to access them. "It was scary," says Rivera, "and we were afraid to return."
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At the time, Rivera and Jasmine's father, Peter Nwajei, owned a bagel shop in the Woodhaven section of Queens. When Sandy struck, they and three of their four children encamped at the store, More Than Bagels, for a week or two. "We had no place to go," says Rivera, "and you don't want to be a burden on anyone."
At the time, Jasmine, the youngest of their four children, was a senior at Murry Bergtraum High School, a perennial girls hoops power located in the shadow of the Brooklyn Bridge in lower Manhattan. College coaches were sending mail to Eva Rivera's home to inquire about her daughter, but no one was retrieving it. "To be honest," says Rivera, who lost the bagel shop as business declined in the storm's wake, "we just had so many other things on our minds."
By the time Rivera and her children returned home just before Christmas, and Peter returned to his house in nearby Rockaway Beach, Jasmine decided that she wanted to remain close. "I want you and dad to be able to come to my games in college," Jasmine, who would lead Murry Bergtraum to a 15th consecutive city title her senior year, told her mom. "I'm going to go to Wagner."
"We got lucky," admits Cermignano, who previously was an assistant coach at Illinois, Vanderbilt and Maryland. "I've coached in some of the biggest conferences in the country, and Jasmine absolutely would fit right in there."
Nwajei, who finished second in the nation in scoring average last season (24.8 points per game), concluded this, her junior year, averaging 29.0 points per game. She must wait until after the NCAA tournament to know for certain if anyone has edged her out for the scoring title (Rachel Banham of Minnesota, which still has the Big Ten and NCAA tournaments ahead of it, is currently second at 27.7 points per game). "I would like to finish No. 1," says Nwajei, in a manner that is blunt without being arrogant, "but either way, people are going to know who I am."
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