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NJCAA Region XV Tournament: Women's Basketball Quarterfinals: Queensborough vs. Rockland CC
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
01h: 25m:03s | 819 views

In the Region XV Basketball tournament, the 5th seeded Lady Tigers saw a furious second half rally held off by the 4th seeded Rockland Lady Hawks. Queensborough lost 71-64 in what turned out to be the last game of the Bob DiNardo era.

DiNardo was burned by his decision to start the game in a man-to-man defense, which resulted in an early 10-2 deficit. After a switch to a zone defense, QCC rallied to take a 17-16 lead. It was the last time Queensborough would lead. Rockland led at halftime 37-29, on the strength of seven three-pointers. Lady Hawks Christine Brezovsky, Katie Sovak and Melissa Loughane were all in double digits. Sabrina Rodriguez and Jaclyn Torres were in double digits, to keep QCC in the game.

Brezovsky and Nikki Saponaro hit back to back threes for Rockland to extend the lead to 14, causing Coach DiNardo to call a full timeout. With 13 minutes to go, Rockland led 48-36, before going on a 7-0 run which seemingly put the game out of reach. The 19 point lead was the largest of the game and with only 10:46 to go the game looked over. Queensborough then went on a 13-2 run, sparked by trifectas by Rodriguez, Torres and Latasha Harris, and it was 57-49 with 6:29 to go. After a time-out, QCC went into a full-court press which turned Rockland over, and made it 57-51.

With two minutes to go QCC still trailed by six, 63-57. With 80 seconds to go, Rodriguez made it 63-61, the closest the game had been since it was 31-29 in the first half. With 70 seconds to go Katie Sovak missed a three, but Rodriguez was called for a foul in the act of shooting, and made two free throws, the second aided by a questionable lane violation. The game was 67-61 when Latasha Harris completed a conventional three-point play with nine seconds to go to cut the lead in half. The Lady Hawks put the game away at the line, as Rockland hit 12 free throws in the final 4:49.

Game summary written by QCC student David Russell.

Website: http://www.qcc.cuny.edu/Sports/

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