KING'S MEN POST CRITICAL 71-58 WIN OVER WILKES

WILKES-BARRE – John Soboleski scored 27 points and hauled in 10 rebounds as the King's College men's basketball team officially clinched a berth in the Freedom Conference playoffs with a critical 71-58 victory over host Wilkes University Tuesday in the Marts Center.

With the win, King's improved to 16-8 overall and 8-3 in the Freedom Conference after posting its sixth straight victory. Wilkes, meanwhile, slipped to 12-11 and 6-5 in league play. The victory also moves King's to within a half-game of first-place DeSales, a -62 upset loser at Arcadia Tuesday night.

King's and Manhattanville are both tied for second with 8-3 conference marks while DeSales closed out its conference slate at 9-3. Arcadia, which is tied with Wilkes for the fourth and final spot, travels to Manhattanville on Saturday in the regular finale for both teams.

King's would open the game with a 6-2 spurt, thanks to four points from Kevin Conroy. After Matt Gould hit on a jumper for the Colonels, John Soboleski would follow up with five straight points after scoring on a bucket down low and a traditional three-point play. Wilkes would counter with a three-pointer by Chris DeRojas and a lay-up from Tom Kresge to cut the gap to 11-9 with 13:60 on the clock.

After Soboleski scored again for King's, the Colonels used a basket by Steve Kline and two foul shots from Kresge to tie the score at 13-13 with 11:26 left in the half. Kofi Dwebeng would then make one-of-two foul shots to give the Monarchs a one-point lead, but Chris Gulla would convert a driving lay-up to put the Colonels ahead 15-14.

King's would quickly recapture the lead as a jumper from Jim Schule and subsequent baskets from Cousart and Dwebeng gave the Monarchs a 20-15 advantage with 6:29 remaining. The Colonels cut the lead to 20-19 ob buckets by Kresge and Anthony Gabriel with 5:55 left, but the Monarchs would counter with a 10-4 run keyed by a three-pointer from Jim Welsh and four points by Soboleski as the Monarchs lead grew to 30-23 with 3:31 remaining in the opening stanza. The teams would trade scores for the remainder of the half as the Monarchs took a 35-28 lead into the break. Soboleski led King's first half effort with 15 points.

In the second stanza, Wilkes would cut into the lead when Kline netted four straight points to bring the Colonels to within 35-32. The Monarchs would respond with a three pointer by Vicne Scalzo and a driving lay-up from Cousart to give the Monarchs a 42-34 lead with 14:57 on the clock.

Wilkes used three straight baskets from Kline, Tom DeFeo, and DeRojas to cut the lead to 42-40, but King's would again answer the call with an inside basket from Soboleski and a three-pointer by Scalzo to extend the Monarch advantage to 47-40 with 12:26 on the clock. After the Colonels used back-to-back buckets by Kresge to close the score to 48-46 with 12:02 left, King's responded with a 7-0 surge on a three-pointer by Welsh and two straight baskets by Cousart to up the lead to 55-46 with 9:05 remaining.

The Colonels again attempted to come back as a basket by Gulla and one-of-two foul shots from Kresge would bring Wilkes to within 55-49 with 6:02 left. But the Monarchs would put the game away with a 8-0 run when Welsh canned a three-pointer; Soboleski scored three points, and Cousart made two foul shots following a Wilkes technical foul. The spurt gave King's a comfortable 63-49 lead with 4:00 remaining in the contest.

Soboleski would put the game away when he would score five of the Monarchs final six points to come to within one point of equaling his career-high of 28 points.

Cousart added 12 points and five rebounds for the Monarchs while Welsh netted 11 off the bench. Dwebeng finished with nine points.

Wilkes was paced by Kresge with 21 points and 10 rebounds while Kline added 16.

King's will close out the regular-season Saturday when the Monarchs host Delaware Valley College at 3:00 p.m. in Scandlon Gymnasium.


KING'S COLLEGE 71, WILKES 58

KING'S COLLEGE (16-8/8-3 Freedom)
John Soboleski 10-15 7-10 27; Jamie Cousart 4-10 4-4 12; Jim Welsh 3-5 2-4
11; Kofi Dwebeng 2-7 4-6 9; Kevin Conroy 2-4 1-2 5; Vince Scalzo 1-8 0-0 3;
Jim Schule 1-3 0-0 2; Chris Hacker 1-2 0-0 2; Ryan Nenstiel 0-3 0-0 0. Totals 24-57 18-26 71.

WILKES (12-11/6-5 Freedom)
Tom Kresge 7-16 7-8 21; Steve Kline 7-11 2-2 16; Chris DeRojas 2-6 2-3 7;
Matt Gould 2-5 0-1 5; Chris Gulla 2-3 0-1 4; Kyle Ruby 1-2 0-0 3; Anthony
Gabriel 1-5 0-0 2; Chris Hopkins 0-0 0-0 0; Josh Pstrak 0-0 0-0 0; John Defeo 0-2 0-0 0. Totals 22-50 11-15 58.

King's College................ 35 36 - 71
Wilkes........................... 28 30 - 58

3-point goals--King's College 5-16 (Jim Welsh 3-4; Vince Scalzo 1-7; Kofi
Dwebeng 1-2; Chris Hacker 0-1; Ryan Nenstiel 0-2), Wilkes 3-15 (Chris
DeRojas 1-3; Kyle Ruby 1-2; Matt Gould 1-3; Anthony Gabriel 0-2; Steve Kline
0-3; Tom Kresge 0-2). Fouled out--King's College-None, Wilkes-Matt Gould.
Rebounds--King's College 32 (John Soboleski 10), Wilkes 36 (Tom Kresge 10).
Assists--King's College 16 (John Soboleski 4), Wilkes 14 (Chris DeRojas 4;
Matt Gould 4). Total fouls--King's College 14, Wilkes 21. Technical
fouls--King's College-None, Wilkes-Chris DeRojas; Team. A-1200