Firebirds Soar Past Queens, 69-53; Reclaim First Place in ECC Standings

WASHINGTON, DC – The University of the District of Columbia women's basketball team cruised past Queens College, 69-53 in a battle for first place in the East Coast Conference standings on Saturday afternoon in the nation's capital.

The Firebirds (11-3) won their third straight game to leap over Queens for first place in the ECC with a record of 7-1. Queens, which had its six-game win streak come to a halt, fell to 11-4 overall and 7-2 in league play.

Junior forward Denikka Brent (Mechanical Engineering – Chesapeake, VA/Booker T. Washington HS) scored a game-high 19 points on 8-of-16 from the field and 3-of-4 from the foul line. She also added five rebounds, one blocked shot and a steal. The 2^nd leading scorer in the conference, junior transfer guard Telisha Turner (Criminal Justice – Wilmington, DE/Harcum), added 16 points - about four under her season average, as she unselfishly handed out a season-high seven assists and collected a game-high five steals.

UDC also got valuable contributions from sophomore reserve guards Shantrel Oliver (History – Columbia, MD/River Hill HS) and Tiara Goode (Criminal Justice – Brentwood, NY/Brentwood HS), and forwards Tatyana Calhoun (Environmental Science – Disputanta, VA/Sussex Central HS) and Diamonique Carr (Criminal Justice – Camden, NJ/Medical Arts HS). Oliver shot 4-of-7 from the field to tie her season-high of nine points, Goode was a perfect 3-of-3 from the field for seven points, and Calhoun and Carr led the Firebirds in rebounding with six apiece.

Queens was led offensively by three forwards: Madison Rowland (15 points), Melissa Gardner (13 points) and MacKenzie Rowland (11 points). Gardner also led the team with seven rebounds.

Oliver twice knocked down jump shots to help the Firebirds grab early leads of 5-2  and 9-5 what was a sloppy first eight minutes of action, but a 5-0 Knights run gave Queens its first lead of the game, 10-9 near the 11-minute mark. The lead changed hands five more times before the Firebirds took control of the game in the final six minutes of the first half. Trailing 16-14 after a layup by Queens forward Elisabeth Gully at the 6:17 mark, Turner got to the free-throw line and made a pair to knot the score at 16-all. Turner went on to score seven points of what amounted to a 15-3 Firebirds surge in the final 5:55 of the first half, as UDC went to the break with its largest lead of the half, 31-19.

The Knights, who had not lost a game since November 2013, opened the second half on an 8-4 charge which cut the deficit to 35-27 with 16:42 to play. But that was as close as they would get the rest of the way as the Firebirds soared on a 17-5 run over the next 6:36 to put the game virtually out of reach, 52-32 with 10:06 left to play. The UDC lead remained between 14 and 20 for the rest of the way, as the Firebirds coasted to a 69-53 marquee conference victory.

The top two teams in the ECC were pretty even in shooting (UDC 45-percent/Queens 41-percent) and rebounding (UDC – 36, Queens - 34), and both teams struggled with turnovers (Queens – 23, UDC – 22), but the Firebirds' defense was able to hold the Knights 0-for-5 from three-point range while also only sending them to the free-throw line for 11 attempts, of which they only made seven (64-percent). UDC, meanwhile, shot 4-of-11 from behind-the-arc (36-percent) and made 13-of-18 (72-percent) from the free-throw line.

The Firebirds will look to win their fourth straight game as they host ECC foe Bridgeport on Wednesday, January 22^nd at 5 p.m.