Women's Basketball Falls to Queens, 77-71
Box Score FLUSHING, N.Y. (Jan. 17, 2015) - The LIU Post women's basketball team saw its four-game winning streak come to an end Saturday, as the Pioneers fell to Queens, 77-71, in East Coast Conference action at Fitzgerald Gymnasium in Flushing.
Senior guard
Chelsea Williams (Copiague, N.Y.) led the Pioneers (9-6, 5-2 ECC) offensively. Williams scored 24 points on 8-of-15 shooting, including going 3-for-6 from behind the arc. She also brought down eight rebounds. Red-shirt senior
Jessica Little (Wyandanch, N.Y.) contributed a career-best 14 points on 4-of-6 shooting from deep.
LIU Post and Queens (11-3, 6-1 ECC) battled back and forth throught the first half until the Knights pulled away. After junior forward
Kalinka DeRoche (New Haven, Conn.) hit a lay-up to tie the score at 8-all with 13:17 on the clock, Queens went on a 13-2 spurt that opened a 21-10 lead with 9:12 to go before the break.
Then, with the Pioneers trailing 27-18 with just under six minutes to go before halftime, senior guard
Ashley Castle (Brooklyn, N.Y.) scored five straight points to cut the deficit to four (27-23), but that would be as close as the green and gold would get until DeRoche scored three straight points with under two minutes to go to make it 39-35 in favor of the hosts. Queens took a 41-35 lead into the break.
In the second half, LIU Post used the three-ball to get back into it and regained the lead for the first time since the opening seconds of the contest. A Little trifecta at the 10:40 mark gave the green and gold a 50-48 advantage. Just under a minute later, Little hit another three to give LIU Post a three-point cushion (53-50).
Later in the half, with the Pioneers trailing 59-57, Little hit yet another three to give the green and gold a one-point edge (60-59), but that would be the last time LIU Post would hold a lead. The Knights answered with a 7-0 spurt to go up 66-60 and Madison Rowland would hit two free throws with eight seconds left to seal it.
DeRoche finished with a career-best nine points and hauled down seven rebounds. Castle dished out five assists and chipped in seven points.
Head Coach
Deirdre Moore and the Pioneers are back in action on Tuesday (Jan. 20), when they host ECC rival NYIT in the first edition of this season's Battle of the Boulevard. The opening tip is slated for 5 p.m.