NYACK, N.Y. (Nov. 24, 2019) - It took fifteen minutes longer than a regulation basketball game allows but the Queens College men's basketball team secured its first win of the season on Sunday (Nov. 24) with a 96-92 triple-overtime triumph over Nyack at Bowman Gymnasium. 

Junior guard Elijah Bovell led the way for the Knights (1-5) with 27 points and a career-high 17 rebounds; the Baldwin native pulled down 15 defensive boards and went 9-for-18 (50%) from the field in the win including four three-pointers. Keenan Gorski scored a season-best 23 points and was 10-for-12 from the free throw line, hitting eight of nine attempts from the charity stripe in the second half and overtime sessions. Foul shooting was a major key to success for Queens as Shomari Redd hit all six tries in the third overtime frame to finish his night with 21 points, seven rebounds and four assists while senior forward Kevin Buron added 11 points and seven boards.

Nyack (4-3) was led by a 24-point performance from Perris Hicks, who also had six assists and four rebounds in the loss for the Warriors.

Queens led 35-31 at the half and had as much as an 11-point advantage in the second half of play before Nyack mounted a comeback to tie the game at 59-all with four minutes left in regulation on a Joel Bailey lay-up. A Redd free throw and a Bovell bucket put QC ahead 62-59 before Thomas Nolan drained a three-pointer with 15 seconds left to tie the game; Bovell missed a game-winning jumper as time expired to send the contest into overtime.

Hicks hit a trifecta to begin the first overtime period for Nyack and Junior Graham converted on a lay-up to give the Warriors a 67-62 lead midway through the frame. Redd knocked home a lay-up and Bovell hit a three of his own to tie things at 67-all and Bailey's jumper at the buzzer was swatted away by David Grady III to end the first extra session. The second overtime period had a more frenetic pace to it as Gorski got the scoring started with a two-pointer. After a Buron bucket put the Knights ahead 71-67, Hicks knocked down another three-ball to bring the Warriors within a point at 71-70. Free throws told the story the rest of the way until the final seconds of the frame; Gorski's two foul shots put QC ahead by a 77-74 margin but Bailey hit a three-pointer with two seconds left to tie the game and send the contest into a third extra frame.

The Knights opened the third overtime session on a 7-3 run with Redd accumulating five of those points including two free throws to give the Knights an 81-80 lead---an advantage the squad would not relinquish---and a three-pointer to push Queens ahead by four points. QC would go 12-of-12 from the free throw line in the third extra session as Nyack would not bring the score back level once again.

Queens hit 32-of-72 (44%) from the field but more importantly the Knights went 23-of-28 (82%) from the free-throw line in the victory. The Knights also won the rebounding battle by a 50-46 margin. 

QC visits Lakewood, N.J. on Wednesday (Nov. 27) for a 1 p.m. match-up with Georgian Court University.