The St. Thomas Aquinas College women's basketball team saw its season draw to a close with a 66-42 loss to #2 seed Queens College in the semi-finals of the East Coast Conference Tournament at Pratt Center. ECC Rookie-of-the-Year Jenna Erickson led the way with 17 points but her #6 seeded Lady Spartans closed out the campaign at 14-17 overall. Queens improved to 21-7 overall and advanced to tomorrow's ECC Final where they will take on #4 seed NYIT.

Coming off their opening-round victory Wednesday night at Roberts Wesleyan, the Lady Spartans appeared in trouble early as MacKenzie Rowland was a force in staking the Knights to a 17-8 lead. Kristen Olsen answered with a pair of hoops and Erickson added a trey to bring STAC to within two, and the defense continued to stymie Queens until Ashley Motrechuk's jumper put her team in the lead at 23-22 with 2:32 left in the half.

Kristen Korzevinski briefly put Queens back in front, but Samantha Lane's free throws with five seconds to go staked the upset-minded Lady Spartans to a 26-25 edge after 20 minutes.

Kate McCue's jumper early in the second half put St. Thomas Aquinas on top, 29-25, but Queens was to impose its will from that point. The Rowland sisters, MacKenzie and Madison, along with a stingy defense combined to keep STAC off the board for the next nine minutes, during which the Knights ran off 20 straight points to snag a comfortable 45-29 cushion. STAC would get no closer than 12 points thereafter, as Queens cruised into the finals.

MacKenzie Rowland tallied game highs with 19 points and 10 rebounds, while Madison contributed 15 points and nine caroms. Queens dominated the glass, more than doubling up St. Thomas Aquinas to the tune of a 48-23 rebounding advantage while holding STAC to just 23% from the field (11-48).