JANUARY 17, 2009
LADY MONARCH CAGERS FALTER DOWN STRETCH SA MANHATTANVILLE POSTS 86-77 COMEBACK WIN
WILKES-BARRE – The King's College women's basketball team was outscored 32-16 over the final nine minutes of play and lost the battle at the foul line as the Lady Monarchs dropped a 86-77 decision to visiting Manhattanville Saturday in Scandlon Gym.
With the loss, King's fell to -10 overall and 4-3 in Freedom Conference play. Manhattanville, meanwhile, improved to 7-8 and 4-3 in league games.
The Lady Monarchs enjoyed a solid start to the game, building a 11-point lead after a pair of foul shots by Jessica Paettie with 12:20 left in the opening half. But Manhattanville slowly cut into the lead and managed to tie the score at 36-36 with 1:04 on the clock after a basket by Jess Delagrange. Manhattanville then went ahead 38-36 on a pair of foul shots from Lauren Grenier, but King's sent the game into the break tied at 38-38 after a Paettie jumper with 0:07 on the clock.
In the second half, King's quickly reestablished itself when the Lady Monarchs came out of the locker room with a 12-4 run to build a 50-42 lead with 15:37 left in the contest, following a three-pointer by Paige Carlin. After the Valiants cut the lead to six points, a bucket down low from Julianna Lynott pushed the King's head back to eight, at 52-44 with 13:55 on the clock.
Manhattanville then made a run of its own and cut the King's lead to 56-54 on a Simona Gordon jumper with 10:32 remaining, but King's stretched the advantage back to seven when a lay-up from Krystina Durako pushed the score to 61-54 with 9:14 left in the contest.
From there Manhattanville took over the contest and tied the score at 61-61 on a Delagrange basket with 7:47 left. After the teams traded buckets to remain tied at 63-63, the Valiants took the lead for good when a Nina Johnson lay-up gave Manhattanville a 65-63 lead.
Later, a Jess Paettie three-pointer brought King's to within 71-70 at the 3:43 mark, but the Valiants closed out the game with a 15-7 run to close out the contest.
King's had one of its better shooting efforts of the year, converting on 30-of-56 shots from the floor. However, the Kady Monarchs also hurt themselves greatly at the foul line, making only 10-of-2- attempts while Manhattanville was successful on 30-of-36 free throws.
The Lady Monarchs put six players into double-figure scoring, led by Paettie with 14 points while Durako added 13 points and five rebounds. Brittany Muscatell contributed 11 points, eight assists, and six rebounds while Kaitlyn Malshefski followed with 11 points and six boards. Kaitlyn Fiorino and Paige Carlin tallied 10 points each.
Manhattanville was paced by Gordon with 18 points while Olivia Nastasi and Delagrange chipped in with 16 and 15 respectively.
MANHATTANVILLE 86, KING'S COLLEGE 77
MANHATTANVILLE (7-8, 4-3)
Simona Gordon 6-14 6-9 18; Olivia Nastasi 4-8 7-9 16; Jess Delagrange 5-13 5-5 15; Carol Ortiz 5-5 2-2 12; Carey Hickey 3-8 2-2 11; Nina Johnson 2-5 1-1 5; Kelli Hyjek 1-1 2-2 4; Lauren Grenier 0-6 3-4 3; Courtney Turner 0-2 2-2 2; Stephanie Vaiano 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 26-62 30-36 86.
KING'S COLLEGE (6-10, 4-3)
Manhattanville................ 38 48 - 86
King's College................ 38 39 - 77
