FLUSHING, N.Y. (Feb. 19, 2020) - The Queens College women's basketball team came into Wednesday night's (Feb. 19) game with the sixth-best record (4-9) in the East Coast Conference standings. Their opponents, St. Thomas Aquinas, arrived at Fitzgerald Gymnasium ranked second in the league at 10-2 in ECC play.
That stark placement in the standings proved to be the difference in the battle between the two sides as St. Thomas Aquinas cruised to a 58-45 victory on Senior Night.
Queens is now 7-17 on the season and 4-10 in league action while STAC improves to 19-5 on the year and 11-2 in ECC competition.
Prior to the game, Queens College recognized My'eesa Grant, who averaged 8.5 points and 7.0 rebounds per game last season for the Knights. Once the game tipped off, however, the mood became far less jovial. In their final home game of the season, the Knights had trouble taking care of the basketball, where they were outscored 17-5 in the first quarter thanks to an 8-3 discrepancy in the turnover battle that led to 11 St. Thomas points.
Queens managed to pick up some slack in the second quarter thanks in part to freshman forward Raiana Brown, who put in five of QC's 15 points over that period fo play. The Knights managed to cut the lead down to nine with seconds to go, but a buzzer-beating layup by STAC junior forward Emily Preston fizzled the momentum heading into the half.
The third quarter brought more of what plagued the Knights in the opening frame. They were outscored 16-8, including a 12-4 advantage for the Spartans in the paint, following up a dominant 12-0 discrepancy in the restricted area in the first quarter. Four three-pointers in the fourth and final quarter could not cut a 19-point deficit down to striking distance as the Spartans continued to put the game away.
The Knights only had two players in double figures. Freshman guard Brianne Moxley poured in a game-high 16 points on an efficient 7-of-13 from the field. Brown finished the evening with 10 points and seven rebounds. Meanwhile, Hu XuanRui made a noticeable impact in her first full game for the Knights this season; the sophomore guard had the first bucket of the contest and played all but two minutes with six points, two steals, a block, a rebound an an assist.
The Spartans were led by senior forward Melissa Sadler's 14 points as Alexa Huertas added 11 off the bench for STAC in the contest.
Queens did get help in the ECC standings, however. With Bridgeport's loss to New York Tech in Old Westbury, the Knights remained in the No. 6 position in the conference standings with two games left to play. A big contest comes on Saturday (Feb. 22) as QC travels to Victory Gymnasium in Dobbs Ferry, in search of a victory against the Mavericks of Mercy College. Tip-off is set for noon.
