By Dylan Butler
During three days of practice, in the pre-game meeting and during halftime, Queens College women’s coach Denis Conroy stressed the importance of limiting C.W. Post to one shot per offensive series.
Translation: Dominate the boards.
The Lady Knights answered their coach’s impassioned pleas by out-rebounding the Lady Pioneers, 55-34, in Queens’ 52-43 win at the Pratt Recreation Center in Brookville, L.I. Saturday.
“We just had to play together and harder than they did,” said sophomore Shonda Holder, who led Queens with 12 points and 16 rebounds. “We had to play this game like it was a playoff game.”
It essentially was.
Not only did the Lady Knights sweep the season series from C.W. Post — following 10 straight losses to the Lady Pioneers — but they break the tie for the eighth and final NYCAC tournament berth with C.W. Post.
Queens (10-13, 9-11) withstood a 20-4 run late in the first half and scored the final three points of the half to head into halftime down, 30-24.
“I don’t know what it is, but we always seem to struggle in the last five minutes of the first half,” said junior Erin Dollard, who had 10 points and 5 rebounds in 40 minutes. “It’s something we’re trying to work on.”
After Keona Dessau scored the first points of the second half, C.W. Post (8-13, 8-12) went nearly 13 minutes without scoring and 16 minutes before its next field goal. The Lady Pioneers shot a pitiful 13 percent (3-for-23) from the field in the second half.
“We had good looks, but we weren’t getting the shots down and they wanted to get back in the game and did,” said C.W. Post coach Patrice Walker. “If things go bad, they seem to go bad in bunches. We just couldn’t get things going right for us.”
Kerri Graham had 10 points and 8 rebounds and the freshman backcourt of Erin White and Patti Cronin added 8 points and 5 rebounds apiece for Queens. C.W. Post was led by Thalia Jackson, who had 15 points and 4 steals.
After hosting New York Tech Tuesday, Queens plays at Concordia Thursday and is home for Dowling Saturday.
Reach Associate Sports Editor Dylan Butler by e-mail at TimesLedger@aol.com or call 1-718-229-0300, Ext. 143.
