JANUARY 10, 2009
CONROY NETS CAREER-BEST 41 POINTS TO POWER MONARCHS PAST DELAWARE VALLEY, 83-78
WILKES-BARRE -- For much of its game against Delaware Valley College on Saturday, the King's College men's basketball squad looked like it had little chance to defeat the visiting Aggies in the Monarchs second semester Freedom Conference opener. One fact, however, proved to be the difference in the game.
King's had Kevin Conroy. Delaware Valley didn't.
Conroy scored a career-high 41 points, the sixth highest total in King's history, to power the Monarchs to a gutsy 83-78 victory come-from-behind victory over Delaware Valley. With the win, King's won its fourth straight game, improving to 8-5 overall. More important, the Monarchs won their first Freedom Conference game after dropping its first four league contests. Delaware Valley, meanwhile, slipped to 3-7 and 1-3 in conference games.
The Monarchs opened the game opening up a 5-3 lead but the Aggies would take a 6-5 advantage on a traditional three-point play from Mike Williams and the Monarchs would trail the remainder of the first half. The Aggies slowly build a nine-point advantage, taking a 35-26 lead with 5:20 left in the opening stanza following a three-pointer by Jon Evans. King's chipped away and cut the lead to 42-38 at the half following two foul shots by Conroy and one-of-two each from Kyle Stackhouse and Harry Schlichter. The Monarchs remaining as close as they were was easily attributed to Conroy who scored 20 of the Monarchs 38 points over the game's first 20 minutes.
In the second half, the Aggies slowly built on their lead and eventually took a 12-point advantage when Jason Seipt scored on a lay-up with 13:12 remaining to put the Aggies ahead 61-49. After a King's time out by coach J.P. Andrejko, the Monarchs battled back and used a 10-3 surge, thanks to four points from Harry Schlichter and a three-pointer by Adam Brasky to come to within 64-59 with 9:56 on the clock. The Aggies answered with a three-pointer by Jason Goldmier but Conroy countered with a short jumper, then followed with a tip-in on an offensive rebound to cut the Aggie lead to 67-63 with 5:38 ;left.
Seipt, however, responded with another three-pointer to push the lead back to 70-63 with 5:24 on the clock. With the Aggies clinging to a 74-70 advantage with 3:35 remaining, Conroy took over. The Monarch sophomore was fouled rebounding his own miss and converted both shots from the charity stripe. After an Aggie miss, Conroy was again fouled powering to the basket and made two more foul shots to tie the score at 74-74 with1:47 left.
After another Aggie miss, King's again worked the ball inside to Conroy who was fouled on the third straight possession and connected on both free throws to give the Monarchs their first lead since early in the game at 76-74 with 1:31 remaining. Delaware Valley had a chance to tie the score with 1:16 left but Seipt made one-of-two foul shots to bring the score to 76-75. King's reserve guard Kevin Brown then came up with a critical driving lay-up to increase the Monarch lead to 78-75 with 0:39 on the clock.
After an Aggie miss, Conroy was once again fouled and made one-of-two charity tosses as King's lead grew to 79-75 with 0:29 remaining. After an Aggie turnover. King's Kyle Stackhouse missed both ends of a two-shot foul and Delaware Valley took advantage when Seipt canned a three-pointer to bring the Aggies to within 81-78 with 0:09 on the clock. From there, Conroy was fouled and made good on both attempts to give King's a 83-78 lead with 0:08 left. The Aggies then missed on a late three-pointer and Conroy fittingly snared the rebound with 0:03 as King's walked away with a dramatic comeback victory.
Conroy enjoyed a stellar day, making 11-of-17 from the field while converting a superb 19-of-21 shots from the foul line. He also added a team-high 10 rebounds and dished out three assists. Stackhouse was King's only other player to reach double-figures in scoring, tallying 13 points with five rebounds and four assists. Schlichter came off the bench to score eight with points with four rebounds.
Seipt paced the Aggies with 19 points while Goldheimer added 18. Williams and Evans chipped in with 14 and 11 points respectively.
King's will be idle until Wednesday when the Monarchs travel to St. David to face Eastern University.
KING'S COLLEGE 83, DELAWARE VALLEY 78
DELAWARE VALLEY (3-7, 1-3)
Jason Seipt 6-10 3-6 19; Jason Goldheimer 6-12 4-4 18; Mike Williams 6-8 1-1 14; Jon Evans 3-6 2-2 11; James Jones 3-13 2-2 8; Tom Signore 2-4 0-0 4; Chris Mayo 1-1 0-0 2; Edward Carter 0-2 2-2 2; Cam Prince 0-0 0-0 0; Zach Wise 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 27-57 14-17 78.
KING'S COLLEGE (8-5, 1-4)
Delaware Valley................ 42 36 - 78
King's College................... 38 45 - 83
3-point goals--Delaware Valley 10-23 (Jason Seipt 4-5; Jon Evans 3-5; Jason Goldheimer 2-7; Mike Williams 1-2; Edward Carter 0-1; James Jones 0-3), King's College 3-14 (Nick Reisig 1-5; Jim Schule 1-3; Adam Brasky 1-2; Wil Acevedo 0-1; Eric Brown 0-2; Mike Wagner 0-1). Fouled out--Delaware Valley-Tom Signore, King's College-None. Rebounds--Delaware Valley 27 (James Jones 5; Chris Mayo 5), King's College 43 (Kevin Conroy 10; Jim Schule 10). Assists--Delaware Valley 12 (James Jones 6; Jason Seipt 6), King's College 16 (Kyle Stackhouse 4). Total fouls--Delaware Valley 24, King's College 16. Technical fouls--Delaware Valley-None, King's College-None. A-125
