By Dylan Butler
Last year the Knights went 3-0 at the gem of the NYCAC, including winning the league's post-season tournament. And Saturday, Queens destroyed host C.W. Post, 85-67 to make it four straight wins in Brookville, L.I.”It seems like we play well here,” junior guard Bradd Wierzbicki said. “Maybe we should make it our home court.”Queens (17-5, 13-2 NYCAC) put this game away early, scoring 22 of the game's first 29 points and taking a 43-24 lead into halftime. After a subpar performance in a 78-74 win over Molloy College Feb. 7, coach Kyrk Peponakis wrote one word on the dry erase board in the locker room before the game: physical.And his team responded in a big way, outrebounding the Pioneers, 47-34 and were a +14 on the glass in the first half. While Shaun Bertin (13 points) led the way with eight rebounds, three other players had six apiece, one had five and two had four. All nine players who stepped on the court grabbed at least one rebound. “Guys just went out and got it, they did a good job,” Peponakis said. “Guys gave us a lot of different things and the guards rebounded well.”Bradd Wierzbicki shook off his worst shooting performance of the year against Molloy – he scored 15 points on 5-of-16 from the field – and torched C.W. Post for a game-high 29 points. The junior from Maspeth shot 11-of-19 from the field, 5-of-6 from the foul line and 2-of-5 from three-point range. Lance Hazel followed suit with 19 points on 6-of-12 shooting and Bertin had 13 points on 4-of-8 shooting. Queens shot 49.2 percent from the field for the game. C.W. Post (11-12, 7-9), which was led by Raul Mercedes' 22 points, bounced back from shooting 25.7 percent in the first half to finish at 38.4 percent for the game.”We have enough guys on this team so I don't have to score 30, 35 [points] a night,” Wierzbicki said. “I missed a game and we won and I only had a few points last game and we won and I think it's a testament to the rest of the guys on the team that we can pick each other up.”The Knights led by as many as 25 in the second half but the Pioneers rallied and got as close as 73-59 with 4:41 to play. But Queens went 8-of-10 from the line in the final 3:19 to put the game away.After playing at New Haven in a game scheduled for Tuesday night, Queens continues a torrid stretch of five games in 13 days to close out the regular season with a game at New York Tech Thursday night. Having clinched a berth in the NYCAC tournament, the Knights are currently in sole possession of second place, one game behind Adelphi but just one half game in front of Bridgeport.”We want to be here in March every year,” Hazel said. Reach Sports Editor Dylan Butler by e-mail at TimesLedger@aol.com or call 718-229-0300, Ext. 143.
