By Patrick McCormack
Queens College completed a wild comeback to punch its ticket to the NCAA tournament
The second-seeded Knights women’s basketball team overcame a 15-point deficit with 6:29 left in the game for a thrilling 65-63 comeback victory over No. 4 NYIT in the East Coast Conference championship game at LIU Post last Sunday. Queens College rallied from nine points down in the final 3:42 for a win in the semifinals.
It’s the program first conference title since 2005 and second overall. Queens College visits Stonehill 7:30 p.m. Friday in the opening round of the Division II NCAA tournament.
“We knew that we could come back in the game, we have done that all season long,” Knights Coach Bet Naumovskil said. “We have been a team that makes runs back. We also believe we can put a run together, so we felt we could chip away one possession at a time.”
Queens, whose core is filled with sophomores and juniors, was led by sophomore Madison Rowland, who scored 15 of her game-high 38 points during an 18-3 run to end the game. Rowland added 13 rebounds and sister MacKenzie Rowland added 15 points and 10 rebounds
“We were nervous, but still knew that we could win if we played our hardest,” Madison Rowland said. “I was just playing and thinking I want to win.”
Naumovski said that Roland is something special when she sets her mind to the task at hand.
“Madison was the key to our comeback,” she said. “She has this ability put a game on her back, and run with it,”
Queen College (22-7) increased their lead with a pair of foul shots from former John F. Kennedy star Joya McFarland to make it 65-62. NYIT cut the lead to two but never got closer. Once the final horn sounded Madison Rowland let the moment sink in.
“I was so emotional I wanted to cry,” she said. “It was such a great feeling, our team worked together, and we finally did it,” the forward said.
The Bears led the whole game and increased their lead to 65-40 on a three from Nina Vukosavljevic (15 points) with 6:29 remaining. From that point on Madison Rowland put the team on her back and led a comeback for the ages. Naumovski wants her team to enjoy the experience of the NCAA Tournament and use it to build on in the future. The program has come along way under the fourth-year head coach. The Knights won just six games in 2009-10, the year before she arrived.
“I want them to enjoy the moment,” Naumovski said. “We don’t know that we will be there next year, hopefully we will. But if not, I want them to really enjoy what they achieved this year and experience being in the NCAAs.”
