Box Score Due West, S.C. – The Royals of Queens University wore down the young Erskine women’s basketball team to win 74-72 at Belk Arena. 

Queens (3-1, 2-0) appeared unprepared for Erskine’s full-court defense as the Fleet claimed an early lead and extended it to as many as fourteen points in the opening period.  Sophomore Haleigh Spaulding’s half-court heave at the buzzer banked in to give the Flying Fleet a six point advantage at 35-29 heading into the locker room at halftime.

Queen’s Lacy Singletary scored the first five points of the second half leading the Royals on an 8-0 run that saw them reclaim the lead for the first time since the opening minutes of the first period.  Erskine (0-5, 0-2) responded with an 11-2 run ignited by a block by Spaulding resulting in a 3-point basket by Chelsea Frazier (Dillon, SC, Dillon High School).

Queens’ relentless full-court defensive pressure finally paid dividends midway through the second half as the Fleet wore down resulting in foul trouble.  Shatonya Hardy stole the ball and pushed it forward to Nakia Squire who converted an old-fashion three-point play to give the Royals the lead they would not relinquish at 51-49.  Queens won the game 74-62.

Erskine’s Tori Whittenberg (Mauldin, SC, Mauldin High School) and Chelsea Frazier set career-highs scoring a game-high 17 points each.  Sophomore Andrienne Bannerman (Watha, NC, Pender High School) came off the bench to pull down a game-high 11 rebounds and 9 points.

The Royals had four players finish in double figures.  Singletary finished with a team-high 16 points while teammate Shonice Pettaway earned a double-double with 12 points and 11 boards.  Squire had 13 points while Hardy added 10 points.
Erskine was dominated on the boards 61 to 42 leading to 18 second chance points for Queens.

Erskine concludes the pre-Christmas portion of their schedule on the road.  The Fleet travel to Mount Olive College this Saturday followed by a short road trip to local rival Lander University next Tuesday.