CHARLOTTE, N.C.- It's coming down to the home stretch for the Queens University of Charlotte women's basketball team and in their second to last game at the Oven this season the visiting Anderson Trojans slipped by the Royals by a score of 65-63. The Royals have four regular season games left and are currently in sixth place in Conference Carolinas with tonight's loss while Anderson is in third.

The Royals (12-11/11-7 CC) were led by Marissa Hudley (Charlotte, N.C., Harding University ) with 23 points and 10 rebounds. The double-double is her ninth of the season and ties her best scoring performance.  Her efforts in conference play have made her one of the league's top-10 scorers. Anderson's Alexa Neal led the Trojans (14-9/13-5 CC) with a 23 point game and seven rebounds. Ashley Abed was just off Neal's pace with 21 points and seven boards.

The matchup was back and forth the entire 40 minutes with the largest lead just nine points, Anderson 17-Queens 8. Queens trailed by one at the half, 28-27, but started the second with a 16-8 run to create a five point margin more than five minutes in.

Anderson regained the lead for good with 6:22 remaining, but Queens reeled them back in from six to two with just over a minute to play. The Royals had a chance to tie it up with 30 second to play, but a missed putback attempt by Cecilia Tchangoue (St. Jean Le Blanc, France, Forsyth Country Day) and a missed field goal in the final seconds by Hudley left Queens trailing.

Queens hosts Coker College at the Grady Cole Center on Saturday, Feb. 20 at 5:30pm in the Royals Homecoming contest. Between the women's game at 5:30pm and the men's game at 7:30pm Queens will announce the first class to be inducted into the Royals Hall of Fame.