RUTHERFORD, N.J. – Continuing non-conference play and for the first time on the road in the young season, the Queens College men's basketball team made the trek to Rutherford, New Jersey with a matchup against Central Athletic Collegiate Conference 21-22 champions Felician University Golden Falcons at Job Gymnasium Wednesday evening,
Three Knights scored in doubles figures led by sophomore
Sunnie Diamond (Hiram, GA) 12 points, while sophomore
Shamar Chester (Queens, N.Y.) tallied 11 points and senior
William Ellis (Valley Stream, N.Y.) recorded 10 points, but the Knights would falter late in the second half to drop a closely-contested game.
Game Recap
After both sides started the game missing the first five shots, Queens' Ellis and Chester led a 9-0 run from 18:09 to 16:46 forcing a Felician timeout.
Jonathan Edwards would get Felician on the board knocking down a free throw at 16:26 but Queens would continue to hold the Golden Falcons without a field goal until the 13:06 mark before Anas Amos tallied a layup to bring the score to 11-3.
The Golden Falcons would go an 8-2 run before sophomore
Jayden Seraphin's (Lakeview, N.Y.) back-to-back buckets put the visitors back up by eight, 17-9 with 10:56 left in the first half.
With the home side still struggling on their offensive end, Queens would go on a 9-5 run as Diamond tallied five quick points to put the Knights up by 12
(their largest team of the game), 26-14 with 8:07 left until halftime.
The Golden Falcons would slowly start to cut into Queens' deficit as Felician's Jonathan Edwards led a 14-5 run for the home side.
But with the Knights committing four turnovers and going 2-10 from the field in the final 6:43 of play in the first half. a 12 point lead for the Knights was cut down to three, 31-28 at halftime.
Despite holding a slim lead, the Knights' shooting struggle would haunt them to begin the second half as Felician tied the game at 32-32 at the 17:46 mark.
The home side would take their first lead of the game on a fastbreak three from Jaylen Colon at 17:13 before Chester responded with a three of his own at 16:50 to tie the game.
Both sides would trade long-distance shots as Etnik Peci gave Felician gave a 38-35 advantage at 16:20 before the scoring slowed down until freshman
Eric Tynes' (Springfield, MA.) three-pointer tied the game once again at 14:22.
Using Tynes' three-pointer, the Knights would open a 10-2 run as they took a 45-40 lead with 12:50 left in the game.
After Felician cut the score down to 45-42, Tynes would knock down his second three-pointer of the game to extend the lead back to six, 48-42 at the 12:01 mark.
Turnovers would start to prove costly for the Knights as the home side went on a 14-4 run from 9:08 to 3:48 as they took a four-point edge of 56-54 forcing a Queens timeout.
A layup by Ellis would bring Queens within two, 56-54 with 2:35 left in the game. As the Golden Falcons missed a jumper to extend their lead back to four, Queens would have a chance to tie the game at the charity stripe with 1:26 left in the game.
But the Knights were unable to convert both as they cut the score down to one before the Golden Falcons took a three-point lead on Ebuka Nnagbo's layup with 52 seconds left in the game.
The Knights would get one final chance to tie the game and possibly send the game into overtime. But a second half that was flagged by one too many turnovers and missed opportunities, a final turnover would haunt the Knights at the final whistle as they dropped the non-conference action to the final score of 58-55.
With the loss, the Knights move to 1-2 on the young season.
Game Highlights
- Three Knights recorded double figures for the third game in a row led by Diamond's team-high 12 points (5-10 FG), while Chester tallied 11 points (4-10 FG) and Ellis recorded 10 points (5-11 FG)
- Senior Tyler Carey (Bay Shore, N.Y.) recorded three points (1-3 FG) with a team-high six rebounds and season-high four blocks.
- Tynes (2-3 3PT) and Seraphin (3-6 FG) combined for 12 points off the bench.
- Queens won the boards battle by a 47-30 margin and held an 8-0 edge on second-chance points.
- A season-high 20 turnovers would prove to be costly as Felician held a 12-6 margin in points off turnovers.
- On a night where both teams shot below 40.0% on the evening, the Knights were hurt by a 37.5% free throw shooting performance as they went 3-8 from the line.
NEXT GAME: Head coach
Matt Collier and the Knights return to Flushing as they open a two-game homestand before the Thanksgiving break beginning with the Tigers of Holy Family University (3-0 overall) on Saturday (Nov. 19) afternoon. Tip-off is set for noon.
Live Stats: Men's Basketball | Live Stream: ECC Network
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