After failing to win a single conference game last season, the Lady Knights crushed Mercy College, 82-43, Saturday in their first league-game of the year and have set their sights on high goals.
Head coach Bet Naumovski and guard Bria Jackson shared their aspirations of finishing on top of their conference.
“We want to go undefeated at home,” said Jackson during a recent interview.
The Lady Knights opened up the season ranked ninth in the East Coast Conference and Jackson, whose 22.4 points per game leads the league, said the preseason polls has motivated the team to finish strong.
“Being that we were ranked second-to-last in the conference we definitely are going to make a statement,” Jackson said.
Mercy College was actually picked to finish a distant last to QC in the same poll. The separation showed during the game. The Lady Knights had three players finish with double-doubles in the win, led by freshman center MacKenzie Rowland’s 19 point, 14 rebound effort.
The team only has one more conference game for the month, which is against NYIT on Dec. 8.
Their conference play will continue when they open up against second-ranked LIU Post on Jan. 5. The team will play most of the conference games in January with five home games and four road games.
Naumovski and the team are already looking forward to Jan. 9 and Feb. 9, which is when they play against Dowling College, the defending conference champions.
“They are the team to beat right now,” said Naumovski.
The Lady Knights have shown recent success on the individual level as well with Jackson already being acknowledged for numerous weekly awards from Queens College and the ECC. Rowland has also been awarded for her performance early on in the season as she took Rookie of the Week honors for her performance during the Clarion LaGuardia Tip-Off Tournament.
