By Dylan Butler
The Queens College women's basketball team shot 26.8 percent from the field and 20 percent from 3-point range in a critically important New York Collegiate Athletic Conference game against Molloy College Saturday.Their leader, Shonda Holder, shot just 3-for-18 from the field. But somehow the Lady Knights found a way. They did enough down the stretch to avoid a debilitating loss and defeated the Lions, 68-61.While Holder and seemingly everyone else at Queens struggled from the field, the Lady Knights shot 89.3 percent (25-of-28) from the foul line, knocking down seven more free throws in the seven-point win.”It's really important to get the foul line and I'm really proud of my team for stepping up even more,” Holder said. “Seeing that my shots weren't falling, Patti (Cronin), (Lauren) Tartamella and Jessica (Sanchez), who is a freshman, stepped up and helped me out a little bit more.”Holder, who missed practice Friday with a bad cold, was 11-of-12 from the foul line and finished with 17 points and 12 rebounds for Queens (12-12, 11-11 NYCAC), which heads into the final week of the regular season half a game ahead of New York Tech in the eighth and final spot in the NYCAC standings.Molloy (6-19, 6-16) went on a 10-1 run to take a 31-30 lead into the half and had its largest lead, 51-45, on a layup by former John Adams star Francesca Romano with 9:50 left.But Queens went on a 17-5 run, with Cronin (14 points) and Tartamella (16 points) each hitting a big 3-pointer during the stretch, to take a 62-56 lead with two minutes left in the second half.”There's no denying we're a 3-point shooting team,” said Queens first-year coach Tom Flahive. “If they're dropping, we're winning and we're cruising. If they're not dropping, and they weren't dropping tonight, we're going to have trouble. But we're not going to stop shooting them though because that's our team.”Rose Bruno scored a game-high 25 points and grabbed 10 rebounds and former Mary Louis standout Donna Lohrey added 14 points and 5 assists for Molloy.”Molloy's got heart. Those kids play really hard,” Flahive said. “We do have a problem with Molloy and I don't know what it is. I don't know why we weren't mentally ready to go at these guys but we definitely weren't and we almost lost this. This was a very important game for us.”Philadelphia University 78, Queens College 56. Holder had 15 points and 9 rebounds, Tartamella had 11 points and Cronin and Erin White added 10 points apiece for the Lady Knights Monday in Philadelphia.Reach Sports Editor Dylan Butler by e-mail at TimesLedger@aol.com or call 718-229-0300, Ext. 143.
