JEFFERSON CITY, TENN. – It was a tale of two halves for the Queens University of Charlotte women's basketball team on Saturday afternoon as the Royals fell to the Eagles of Carson-Newman University 89-63 inside Holt Fieldhouse.
Queens (3-11, 2-6 SAC) opened the contest with four unanswered points and led 9-6 over the Eagles (10-4, 6-2 SAC) following a 3-pointer from freshman
Kelsey Leedle with 6:12 left in the first quarter. However, back-to-back 3-pointers from Addison Byrd and Qua Hines sparked a 20-2 run for Carson-Newman that led to a 29-17 advantage for the Eagles after one quarter of play.
A 3-pointer from Braelyn Wykle gave Carson-Newman its largest lead of the half, 38-23, before the Royals battled back to cut the deficit to single digits at 40-32 following five straight points from junior
Kristian Eanes. Hines netted another 3-pointer late in the quarter to push the halftime lead back to double digits.
The Royals quickly cut the Carson-Newman back to single digits, 45-38, as Eanes was able to open the second half with five consecutive points but a Wykle 3-pointer stretched the lead back to double figures. The Carson-Newman lead reach as large a margin as 31 points, 79-51, with 6:38 to play in the game as the regionally-ranked Eagles cruised to victory.
Carson-Newman finished the game 14-of-34 from deep and made 49.2% of its shots from the floor. Wykle finished with a career-high 23 points, Byrd had 22 points off of the bench and conference player of the year front-runner Kayla Marosites tallied her 12
th double-double of the season with 17 points and 11 rebounds.
Queens was 23-for-29 at the charity stripe, making a season-best 79.3% from the line led by 13 made free throws from Eanes. The Pittsboro, N.C. native led the Royals with 21 points and three steals, while redshirt-freshman
Taylor Stevens registered a career-high 15 points to go along with four rebounds and three assists.
Up next for the Royals is a matchup with nationally-ranked Catawba College on Wednesday, January 15 at 5:30 p.m. at home inside Curry Arena.
