The Steel City Queens find themselves in a three-way tie for first place in the Women’sAmerican Basketball Association (WABA) Midwest Division after four weeks.
The team handily defeated the previously undefeated West Michigan Elite Stars 87-55 at A Giving Heart Community Center in the Allentown neighborhood within the city of Pittsburgh Saturday afternoon.
The Queens, owned by Churchill’s Ace Pippens, are 3-1 after the victory, tied with the West Michigan Elite Stars and the OnPoint Swish. The Kalamazoo Blaze at 1-2 and Midwest Sound at 0-5 brings up the rest of the division.
The 87 points is the most the Queens have ever posted in a single game. The victory was also important as the Queens also handed the OnPoint Swish their only loss of the season, 77-64.
The game started with the Queens committing a turnover in the opening seconds. Turnovers were a big problem with the team’s first and only loss of the season on July 26, 77-62 to the Richmond Roadrunners. Both teams had a difficult time getting their feet underneath them in the first few minutes of play.
The Queens were in the lead from the beginning, but the Elite did take a momentary 3-2 ead with 7:35 to go in the first quarter. But the Queens, largely on the back of Ayanna Townsend went ahead and never looked back. Nia Staples was fouled during a 3D opportunity and hit all three free throws. Forward Emma Stille rebounded a shot, missed her own, rebounded against and was fouled. After Still hit one of two free throws, the Queens were up 20-7. At the end of the first 10 minutes of play, the Queens were up 20-10. Townsend with nine points, nearly equaled the Elite’s output and Nia Staples had seven points.
Townsend had an active second quarter, as did Stille (mostly off the boards), but Alexiss Griggs, another forward, made an impact as well. Griggs have seven points, Townsend had six and Sabrina McLin off the bench also added six points.
The Queens posted a 47-24 lead at the half.
In the third quarter, the Queens continued to dominate. Defense is always key in Coach Pippens’ games, and his team kept the Elite grounded. By the end of the 3rd quarter, they had a commanding 64-39 advantage.
Throughout the game, Pippens kept his starters in the game well into the final 10 minutes. There were a lot of jump balls in the game, and the Queens, with a definite height advantage, won all but one throughout the afternoon.
There were also a lot of fouls and trips to the foul line. The height advantage, especially when it came to Townsend, Stille and Griggs, left a dominant rebound advantage.
At one point with the Queens scoring more than 80 points, it appeared that they were trying for their first-ever 100-point outing. There were too many turnovers and missed opportunities to make that happen. The final score tallied an 87-56 win.
Assistant Coach Charles Cook said that he was pleased with the team’s output and that they were able to do some things they hadn’t done before. A master trainer by trade, Cook has talked about the Queens’ ability to not tire throughout the game.
Townsend, the 6’1” center from Duquesne University led all scorers with 29 points. Griggs, with eight of the team’s 17 points in the third quarter, ended with 17. Staples, with seven in the first and six in the fourth, ended with 13 points. Sabrina McLin, who scored 3 three-pointers, also had 13. Dasja Anderson posted four, while Stille and Meghan Hess had three a piece.
This is the first time that the Queens have found themselves in first place. The Queens travel to Richmond this weekend to play the Richmond Roadrunners.
(photo courtesy of Raymond Durkin)