Flushing, N.Y. - Anyone who follows Queens College athletics knows the school's colors are Blue, Red and Silver. However, on Saturday, QC added pink to the spectrum as the players wore pink shorts and the gym was festooned with pink streamers, balloons and bunting, all for the annual Play4Kay game to promote breast cancer awareness.
The Knights did their part on the court, as five players reached double-figures en route to defeating Mercy, 76-71. Queens is now 16-6 overall and 12-4 in the East Coast Conference.
The Play4Kay initiative, founded in 2007, has raised over $2.8 million to support women's cancer research. The annual Play4Kay game is an opportunity for a nation of coaches to raise breast cancer awareness and funds for research on the court, across campuses, in communities and beyond. The foundation is named in honor of former North Carolina State women's basketball head coach, Kay Yow, who succumbed to cancer in 2009.
QC got off to a hot start, using the first 3:03 of action to build a 12-0 lead. In that run, Madison Rowland scored six points, Melissa Gardner scored five and Joya McFarland added one on a foul shot.
Mercy fought back over the next five minutes and pulled within three points, at 17-14 when Maria Nardulli buried a three-pointer at 12:17. The Knights rebuilt their lead, eventually hitting double-figures again when Gardner scored off a feed from Madison Rowland to make the score 29-19. The Mavericks got as close as three points with 2:54 left in the half before Queens pulled away for a 43-36 halftime lead.
The Knights opened the second half by methodically building their lead, eventually getting the gap to 16 points when a Madison Rowland steal led to a McFarland layup.
From there, Mercy used a 14-0 run to pull within two points when Maggie Salamone made a three-pointer at 5:49 to make the score 65-63 for Queens.
Inside of four minute, a Marie Byrnes jumper put QC up five, and at 1:47, Byrnes made a layup to put Queens up by four. The Knights made their foul shots and hung on for the 76-71 win.
In the victory, Madison Rowland finished with 18 points, nine steals and seven rebounds. Her nine steals ties her for the QC record for thefts in a season (Tara Reardon, 1992-93), with 103. Kristen Korzevinski came off the bench to score 16, while McFarland had 13, Gardner totaled 11 and Byrnes posted a double-double of ten points and 12 rebounds.
The Queens College women's basketball team returns to action on Monday, February 17, when they host Dwling at 5:00 PM. This is a makeup game of a postponement from earlier in the season.
