by Warren Kozireski
Sophomore forward Taryn Wilson scored a career-best 21 points and Emily Miller registered her fifth double-double over the past six games as Roberts Wesleyan rallied from six points down over the final four minutes to earn a 75-65 victory over East Coast Conference opponent Queens. The men lost in overtime 87-84.
The Redhawks women led most of the first half and a Sara Nady trey had them up 33-30 after 20 minutes despite committing 13 turnovers – ten in the first quarter.
Queens opened up a six-point advantage with a 7-0 run early in the fourth quarter, but Wilson took over the offense tying the game with consecutive three-pointers and putting the Redhawks ahead for good with an old-fashioned three-point play on a put-back.
Senior Tashayla Sutorius knocked down a trey with two minutes remaining to make it a four point Roberts lead and, after Queens cut it down to one with 62 seconds left, Wilson hit a lay-up after a perfect feed from Nady, who followed by hitting all six free throws down the stretch to complete a game-ending 18-4 Redhawks run for their sixth consecutive win.
“We found a way to pull it out and started looking for the cutters and started to knock down the open shot,” Wilson said about the final seven minutes of the game. “They were overplaying us and we have to see that we can cut back door and look for that pass.”
Wilson added four rebounds, two steals, three assists, and one block to her game-best 21 points while Miller finished with 19 points and 11 boards, and Nady 15 points to go with nine assists for the 10-5, 3-2 Redhawks.
In the men’s contest, Roberts led by as many as 17 points as they opened the second half on a 10-2 run, but Queens outscored the Redhawks 21-4 to tie the game 59-59 with 5:47 remaining in regulation.
The Knights twice held three-point leads over the final two minutes, but both times junior guard Reggie Clark tied the game with clutch three-pointers to send the game into overtime.
Roberts built an early five-point cushion early in overtime as junior Demani Smith hit a lay-up and Clark another trey, but Queens used a 13-2 run to lead by six with 23 seconds left.
Yet another Clark trey and a lay-up by freshman Amari Lee cut the Queens lead to just one point with 11 seconds remaining, but the Knights calmly went 4-for-4 from the foul line to seal the win.
Roberts junior forward Armon Nasseri had a double-double with 27 points and 14 rebounds while Clark led with 30 points and nine boards for the 3-12, 0-4 Redhawks. Lee had six points with five assists and freshman Terrell Humes-Kinzer added seven points.
