JANUARY 30, 2010

KING'S MEN POST IMPORTANT 77-58 CONFERENCE VICTORY OVER MANHATTANVILLE

WILKES-BARRE – Kevin Conroy scored 22 points to pace four double-figure scorers as the King's College men's basketball team registered an important 77-58 victory over visiting Manhattanville College in an important Freedom Conference victory Saturday in Scandlon Gymnasium.

With the win, King's remained in sole possession of second place in the league standings as the Monarchs improved to 10-9 overall and 6-2 in conference games.  Manhattanville, meanwhile, slipped to 10-9 and 4-4 in Freedom games.

King's built leads of 4-0 and 8-4 in the early going before Manhattanville used a 14-0 surge to capture a 18-10 lead with 13:27 left in the first half after Andrew Laroche made a pair of foul shots. After King's cut the lead to six points on two occasions, the Valiants upped their advantage to 24-14 on a jumper by Glen Rodriguez and a pair of foul shots from Trevoy Pointer with 11:54 on the clock.

King's would chip away and used a 14-2 run of its own to take a 29-26 with 4:40 remaining following a three-pointer from Matt Fiorino and a driving lay-up by Kyle Stackhouse. After the Valiants cut the lead to 29-28 on two more free throws from Pointer, the Monarchs used one-of-two foul shots from Conroy, a jumper by Jim Schule, and two foul shots from Stackhouse to close out the first half with a 5-0 spurt as King's took a 34-28 lead at the break.

At the start of the second half the Monarchs picked up where they left off as Schule scored on a short jumper and Nick Reisig made one-of-two charity tosses to give King's a 37-28 lead with 19:01 to play.  The Valiants fought back and a subsequent 7-2 surge cut the lead to 39-35 after LaRoche drained a three-pointer with 15:09 remaining. 

With King's holding a 46-40 lead with 12:38 to play, the Monarchs used a three-pointer from Mike Wagner, a three-pointer by Fiorino, one-of-two foul shots from Conroy, and another jumper by Fiorino to build a 55-43 lead with 9:44 on the clock. After a Valiant miss, Dan Maguschak joined the onslaught with a jumper and Fiorino added a steal and lay-up to push the King's lead to 59-43 with 8:44 left.

Manhattanville attempted to battle back and cut the lead to 11 points, at 63-52 on a Rodriguez la-up with 5:51 remaining, but King's built the lead back to 16 points when Stackhouse scored on a beautiful reverse lay-up and Conroy made one-of-two foul shots to give the Monarchs a 71-55 lead with 3:25 to go.   The Valiants would draw no closer than 13 points the rest of the way.

Conroy led the Monarchs with 11 points in each half, going 8-of-10 from the field and 6-of-1 from the foul line while adding five rebounds. Fiornio scored 13 points off the bench, including three three-pointers while Stackhouse added 12 points, six assists, and four rebounds. Wagner also tallied 12 points, including a pair of treys. Schule added six points and seven rebounds while Reisig chipped in with five points and five boards.

Manhattanville was paced by Rodriguez with 13 points and six rebounds while Laroche and Jay Ferriere added 11 and 10 points respectively.

King's returns to action Wednesday with a key 8:00 p.m. Freedom Conference contest at Eastern University in St. David's. Eastern, which defeated King's 61-48 in the first matchup December 2 in Wilkes-Barre, stands one game behind King's in the league standings after the Eagles upset first-place DeSales 61-56 on Saturday. Eastern is now 5-3 in league games.

KING'S COLLEGE 77, MANHATTANVILLE 58

MANHATTANVILLE (10-9/4-4 Freedom)

Glen Rodriguez 6-13 1-2 13; Angelo Laroche 2-5 6-8 11; Jay Ferriere 4-4 0-0 10; Felipe Vargas 3-7 1-2 8; Trevoy Pointer 2-12 4-4 8; DeVon Barnett 1-4 2-2 5; Lamar Glass 1-7 0-0 3; Mike Horgan 0-2 0-0 0; Jeffrey Ventura 0-2 0-0 0; Ivan Maggi 0-0 0-2 0. Totals 19-56 14-20 58.

KING'S COLLEGE (10-9/6-2 Freedom)

Kevin Conroy 8-10 6-11 22; Matt Fiorino 5-6 0-0 13; Mike Wagner 2-4 6-7 12; Kyle Stackhouse 3-8 6-6 12; Jim Schule 3-8 0-0 6; Nick Reisig 2-6 1-2 5; Adam Brasky 1-2 0-0 3; Dan Maguschak 1-5 0-0 2; Mike McCready 1-4 0-0 2; Tim Sanderson 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 26-53 19-26 77.

Manhattanville................   28   30  -   58

King's College................   34   43  -   77

3-point goals--Manhattanville 6-20 (Jay Ferriere 2-2; Felipe Vargas 1-3; Lamar Glass 1-4; DeVon Barnett 1-3; Angelo Laroche 1-2; Jeffrey Ventura 0-2; Trevoy Pointer 0-2; Glen Rodriguez 0-2), King's College 6-15 (Matt Fiorino 3-4; Mike Wagner 2-4; Adam Brasky 1-2; Nick Reisig 0-4; Dan Maguschak 0-1). Fouled out--Manhattanville-Angelo Laroche, King's College-Jim Schule. Rebounds--Manhattanville 31 (Lamar Glass 7), King's College 39 (Jim Schule 7). Assists--Manhattanville 11 (Mike Horgan 2; Jay Ferriere 2; Lamar Glass 2; Trevoy Pointer 2), King's College 18 (Kyle Stackhouse 6). Total fouls--Manhattanville 19, King's College 18. Technical fouls--Manhattanville-None, King's College-None. A-375