POST-GAME INTERVIEW WITH MACKENZIE ROWLAND

POST-GAME INTERIVEW WITH COACH NAUMOVSKI

rookville, N.Y. - Heading into Saturday's semifinal between Queens and St. Thomas Aquinas, every game in the 2015 East Coast Conference women's basketball championship went to the lowest seeded team.  For a half, it seemed like that would be the case as well, as the Spartans led, 26-25 at the break, but a strong second-half lifted the Knights to a 66-42 victory and into the ECC final on Sunday against NYIT at LIU Post.

It really was a tale of two halves for Queens.  QC set the tone early in the first half, jumping out to a nine-point advantage, 17-8 with 11:10 remaining.  MacKenzie Rowland accounted for ten of the first 17 points for the Knights.  From there, The Spartans used an 11-2 run to even the score at 19-19 with 5:30 left to play.  They closed out the half with seven points and led at the break, 26-25.

Queens regrouped in the half and turned up the defensive pressure in the second period, eventually using strong defense and rebounding to pull away for the win.  STAC scored the first three points of the session to lead 29-25.  A MacKenzie Rowland layup 3:44 into the half tied the score at 29-all.  On their next possession, it was Kristen Korzevinski who knifed through the lane for a driving layup that put QC ahead, 31-29.

Later in the half, leading, 32-29, Madison Rowland got frr off a screen and buried a three-pointer to make the score 35-29 for the Knights.  Joya McFarland stole the ball on the ensuing possession and hit a jumper on the other end.  Finally, an offensive rebound and put back by Elisabeth Gully at 10:43 put QC up, 45-29.  The Spartans scored on their next possession, at the 9:21 mark.  They went a streak of 10:39 of game time and scored just three points.  They were held to 16 points in the entire half.

A Raychel Shannon jumper inside of the final minutes gave the Knights their biggest lead of the game, 66-42, which was the final score.  In the win, all 11 players saw action.  MacKenzie Rowland posted a double-double with game-bests in points (19) and rebounds (ten).  Madison Rowland finished with 15 points and nine rebounds, while Gully had seven points and nine boards.  Korzevinski shot 5-10 and totaled a dozen points.

As a team, Queens outscored STAC in the paint, 38-12.  The also surpassed them in second-chance-points, 16-4.  As a unit, QC made the Spartans shoot 3-24 (12.5%) in the second half and just 11-48 (22.9%) for the game.

The Knights are now 21-7 on the season and advance to the ECC final on Sunday, where they will face #4 NYIT at noon.  NYIT upset the top-seed, UDC, in the opener.