NOVEMBER 23, 2010
KING'S WOMEN SUFFER 87-49 DEFEAT TO SCRANTON
SCRANTON — Tuesday night, the King's College and University of Scranton women's basketball teams met for the first time since the 2006-07 season. After falling 87-49 to host Scranton at the John Long Center, visiting King's may have preferred to wait another year.
Scranton raced out to a 12-0 lead after just 3:15 of play and forged a 51-23 led at the half as the Lady Royals never looked back. With the win, Scranton improved to 2-2 on the year while King's slipped to 2-2 as well.
King's and Scranton had faced one another since the early 1970's as members of the Middle Atlantic Conference. When Scranton abandoned the MAC following the 2006-07 season to join the newly formed Landmark Conference, the rivalry was put on hold. Scranton, which defeated King's 79-63 in the last meeting between the teams in the 2007 Freedom Conference championship game, picked up right where it left off.
The Lady Royals controlled the game at both ends of the floor right from the opening whistle. Led by 14 first-half points from Landmark Conference Player of the Year Megan Kopecki, the game was never in doubt.
The Lady Royals used four points each from Kopecki, Sarah Gage, and Jenifer King to score the first 12 points of the game. King's finally got on the board when Celia Rader (Scranton, PA, Scranton Prep)made one-of-two fouls shots with 16:17 left in the half. Scranton rattled off nine of the next 11 points and built a 21-3 advantage on a lay-up by Kopecki with 13:24 on the clock.
King's attempted to respond with a 9-3 surge, cutting the lead to 24-12 after two foul shots from Katlin Michaels and a three-pointer by Samantha Simcox (Sinking Spring, PA, Wilson)at the 11:08 mark. The Lady Royals, though answered with a 16-6 run and stretched the lead to 22 points when a bucket by Gage pushed the Scranton advantage to 40-18 with 4:28 left in the half.
The second half was more of the same as Scranton slowly stretched the margin, building its biggest lead of the game at 44 points, when Katherine Toro canned a three-pointer with 8:57 remaining. The Lady Royals cruised the rest of the way.
Scranton shot 45.3 (34-75) percent for the game and 45.5 (10-22) percent from three-point range. Ing's shot just 32.7 (17-52) percent for the game and just 22.2 (4-18) from behind the arc. The Lady Royals dominated the glass, owning a whopping 56-26 rebounding advantage, including 21 offensive boards.
Kopecki led Scranton with 17 points, eight assists and five rebounds. She was joined in double figure points by King (13), Torto (13), and Gage (12).
King's was paced by Simcox, who came off the bench to score 11 points with five rebounds. Michaels added 10 points and five assists while Paige Carlin (Scotrun, PA, Pocono Mountain East)and Lindsay Atchison (Green Village, NJ, Chatham) added eight and seven points respectively.
The Lady Monarchs will be idle over Thanksgiving break and will return to the court Monday with a 7:00 p.m. matchup at Widener University in Chester.
THE UNIVERSITY OF SCRANTON 87, KING'S COLLEGE 49
KING'S COLLEGE (2-2)
Samantha Simcox 3-6 4-4 11; Katlin Michaels 2-10 6-10 10; Paige Carlin 4-10 0-3 8; Lindsay Atchison 3-5 0-1 7; Abby Malloy 1-3 0-0 3; Jessica McHugh 1-1 0-0 3; Celia Rader 1-8 1-2 3; Brittany Muscatell 1-3 0-0 2; Carissa Gegaris 1-4 0-1 2; Meagan Boccio 0-1 0-2 0; Kyley Henry 0-0 0-0 0; Nina Magan 0-0 0-0 0; Molly Dahl 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 17-52 11-23 49.
THE UNIVERSITY OF SCRANTON (2-2)
Megan Kopecki 7-11 2-2 17; Katherine Torto 5-7 2-2 13; Jennifer King 5-9 0-0 13; Sarah Gage 5-8 2-2 12; Alison Sweeney 2-8 1-2 6; Katie Cunningham 2-5 0-0 6; Colleen McLane 2-2 0-0 6; Tayler Pallotta 2-8 1-1 5; Courtney Roselle 2-5 0-0 4; Sidney Jaques 1-1 0-0 2; Christina Hiltunen 1-3 0-0 2; Brianna Reigstad 0-4 1-2 1; Shernai Bentley 0-1 0-0 0; Katie Sherry 0-3 0-0 0. Totals 34-75 9-11 87.
King's College.......................... 23 26 - 49
The University of Scranton......... 51 36 - 87
3-point goals--King's College 4-18 (Abby Malloy 1-2; Lindsay Atchison 1-2; Samantha Simcox 1-1; Jessica McHugh 1-1; Brittany Muscatell 0-2; Meagan Boccio 0-1; Molly Dahl 0-1; Celia Rader 0-4; Paige Carlin 0-1; Katlin Michaels 0-3), The University of Scranton 10-22 (Jennifer King 3-5; Katie Cunningham 2-5; Colleen McLane 2-2; Katherine Torto 1-2; Megan Kopecki 1-2; Alison Sweeney 1-4; Brianna Reigstad 0-1; Christina Hiltunen 0-1). Fouled out--King's College-None, The University of Scranton-None. Rebounds--King's College 26 (Molly Dahl 5; Samantha Simcox 5), The University of Scranton 56 (Courtney Roselle 8). Assists--King's College 12 (Katlin Michaels 5), The University of Scranton 24 (Colleen McLane 8; Megan Kopecki 8). Total fouls--King's College 9, The University of Scranton 16. Technical fouls--King's College-None, The University of Scranton-None. A-350
