Box Score CHARLOTTE, N.C. – The Queens University of Charlotte women's basketball team defeated King College by a score of 78-53 this afternoon at the Grady Cole Center. The win improves the Royals' (8-5) conference record to 6-3. King (8-5) drops to 4-5 in the league.
 
The Royals had four players reach double-digits in scoring with Shatonya Hardy's (Fayetteville, N.C., E.E. Smith) 12 points leading the way. Melissa Thomas (Havelock, N.C., Havelock) and Shanel Sweet (Land O'Lakes, Fla., Land O' Lakes) each scored 11 points, while Shonice Pettaway (Walstonburg, N.C., Greene Central) added 10 points. Hard y also led the Royals with four assists and grabbed three steals. Thomas led Queens with six rebounds and collected four steals. Nikia Squire (Columbia, S.C., Ridge View) led Queens in steals with five.
 
The Royals' defense proved to be too much for the Tornado this afternoon, forcing King into 24 total turnovers. Queens capitalized, scoring 28 points off of King's mishaps. Queens also shot 88.2 (15-of-17) percent from the free-throw line, which was their best performance from the charity stripe this season.
 
After the Tornado tied the game at 2-2 early, Queens quickly began building a lead over King going up by as much as 25 points in just the first half.
 
King cut Queens' lead to 12, 49-37, following the first media of the second half, but the Royals responded going back to their defensive pressure to build their lead out to as much as 26 points before the end of regulation.
 
Stephanie Brantley led the Tornado with 11 points.
 
Queens will travel to take on conference rival Belmont Abbey on Monday at 5:30 p.m.