Flushing, N.Y. - A pair of late foul shots from Joya McFarland helped the Queens College women's basketball team pull away from Holy Family to earn a hard-fought, 61-56 victory in Flushing on Wednesday.  The Knights are now 5-2 on the season. The Tigers, who were ranked nationally and finished 28-3 overall just a season ago, fell to 2-4 with the loss.

QC built a commanding lead in the first half, eventually taking a 32-16 lead into the intermission.  The 16 point gap came largely on strong defensive play as the Knights rotated between zone, man-to-man and pressing packages.

Holy Family jumped out to a 9-2 lead over the first 3:35 of play.  From there, QC turned up the defensive pressure and went on a 19-0 run over the next 9:06 of game time to take a 21-9.  In that scoring spree, Melissa Gardner scored eight of her season-high15 points.  Marie Byrnes scored the final points of the half with a jumper with 0:31 on the clock to put QC ahead, 32-16.

At the 18:01 mark of the second half, Madison Rowland found her sister, Mackenzie Rowland for a bucket that gave the Knights their largest lead of the game, 20-points, as the bucket made the score 38-18.

From there, the Tigers slowly and methodically cut into the lead; eventually tying the game at 48-48, when Aigail Iannotti made the second of her two free throws at 5:29.

At the 0:13 mark, with the Tigers within two points, McFarland sank both of her free throws to put the Knights up by two possessions.  The Knights hung on for a 61-56 win and earned their second big win of the season after defeating Pace in the season-opener.

Four Knights finished in double figures as Gardner led the way with 15 points.  The Rowland sisters each finished with 14, while McFarland totaled 11.

The Queens College women's basketball team returns to action on Saturday, December 7, when the travel to Maryland to face Bowie State.  The Knights defeated Bowie State a year ago in double-overtime as Bria Jackson scored a school-record 49 points in the win.