JANUARY 20, 2010
KING'S MEN PREP FOR POST-SEASON WITH 77-56 VICTORY OVER WILKES
WILKES-BARRE - In the King's College men's basketball team's season-finale against arch-rival Wilkes on Saturday, there were no thunderous dunks, nor were there any scintillating one-on-one drives to the basket. What the game did have, though, was a good old fashion display or precise team work as the Monarchs sliced and diced their way to a convincing 77-56 victory over the Colonels in a tune-up for this week's Freedom Conference Tournament.
With the win, King's ended the regular-season with a 12-13 overall record and an 8-6 Freedom Conference ledger while sweeping the season series from the Colonels. Wilkes, meanwhile, saw its season come to an end as the Colonels fell short of reaching the conference playoffs after posting a 13-12 overall record and a 4-10 league record.
King's will now move on to the Freedom Conference Tournament as the fourth-seeded Monarchs travel to Center Valley to face top-seeded, defending champion DeSales Wednesday at 8:00 p.m. in Billera Hall.
In the first half Wilkes opened up with a 4-2 spurt, but King's got on the board on a Kyle Stackhouse jumper. After the Colonels took a 10-2 lead after two foul shots by Chris DeRojas, the Monarchs used two straight three-pointers from Danny Maguschak and a third from Mike Wagner before Eric Brown canned two foul shots to give the Monarchs a 13-10 lead at the 12:24 mark.
After a Wilkes bucket, the Monarchs used seven straight points from Schule and a three-pointer by Matt Fiorino to build a 23-14 lead at 7:50. With After the teams traded baskets, the Monarchs surged forward after a bucket by Conroy, a three-pointer from Nick Reisig, and one-of-two foul shots by Mike McCready to give King's a 32-19 lead with 4:46 left on the clock.
Later, another try by Reisig and two foul shots from Stackhouse upped the advantage to 37-21 with 2:35 on the clock. After a Wilkes bucket, the Monarchs used two free throws from Maguschak and baskets from Brown and Conroy to take a 43-23 lead into the halftime break.
In the second half King's opened up the lead to 23 points when a Reisig trey pushed the score to 50-27 at 18:15. Wilkes used a 12-4 spurt to bring the score to 54-39 after a Tom Kresge bucket with 12:34 to play. But a three-pointer from Maguschak and an inside basket by McCready pushed the lead to 59-39 with 11:36 remaining.
Wilkes attempted to fight back and came to within 64-49 on a basket by Chris Gulla, but the Monarchs countered with buckets by Schule and McCready, a traditional three-point play from Conroy, and a long three-pointer by Reisig to push the score to 74-50 with 3:17 to play.
King's coach J.P Andrejko would empty the bench over the final 2:48 as King's walked away with a decisive victory.
Schule led four double-figure scorers with 15 points and seven rebounds. Reisig followed with 12 points on four three-pointers while Conroy also added 12 points with six boards. Maguschak contributed 10 points and five rebounds while Stackhouse chipped in with six points and 10 assists.
The Monarchs shot just 43.8 (28-64) percent from the field but were deadly from three-point range. King's made 11-of-19 (57.9 percent) from down-town, including 6-of-10 from long-range in the first half. The Monarchs also dominated the glass, outrebounding Wilkes 47-29.
For Wilkes, standout senior forward Tom Kresge paved the way with 14 points and four rebounds in the final game of his outstanding career. Fellow senior Anthony Gabriel followed with 12 points and four boards. The Monarchs did an admirable defensive job on Wilkes' third leading scorer Chris DeRojas, who came into the game averaging 12.8 points per-game. King's limited DeRojas to only four shots and just two free throws in the game and zero points over the last 34:21 of the game.
King's and DeSales are certainly no strangers to one another. Just last weekend the two teams played an epic triple-overtime game with the Bulldogs pulling out a 92-89 triumph in Scandlon Gym. The Monarchs also fell to DeSales 66-55 in the first meeting between the teams January 23 in Center Valley. The winner will face the survivor of the other Freedom Conference semi-final between second-seeded Eastern and third seeded Misericordia on Saturday at a time to be announced.
KING'S COLLEGE 77, WILKES 56
KING'S COLLEGE ((12-13, 8-6))
Jim Schule 7-14 0-0 15; Nick Reisig 4-12 0-0 12; Kevin Conroy 5-6 2-5 12; Dan Maguschak 3-10 2-2 10; Matt Fiorino 2-4 0-0 6; Kyle Stackhouse 2-3 2-4 6; Mike McCready 2-2 2-4 6; Eric Brown 1-3 2-2 4; Mike Wagner 1-3 0-0 3; Tim Sanderson 1-4 0-0 3; Chris Uhl 0-0 0-0 0; Ian Oakley 0-2 0-0 0; Jonathan Gilmore 0-0 0-0 0; Wil Acevedo 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 28-64 10-17 77.
WILKES ((13-12, 4-10))
Tom Kresge 6-12 2-2 14; Anthony Gabriel 3-7 6-10 12; Chris Gulla 2-5 3-4 8; Cliff Richardson 3-6 2-6 8; Bernard Edmonds 2-3 0-1 4; Tyler Breznitsky 1-10 0-0 2; Nic Wilkins 0-0 2-2 2; Chris DeRojas 0-4 2-2 2; Mike Donatoni 1-2 0-0 2; Aaron Dombrosky 0-0 2-2 2; Kendall Hinze 0-0 0-2 0; Greg Colucci 0-1 0-0 0; Steve Blish 0-0 0-0 0; Matt Meier 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 18-50 19-31 56.
King's College................ 43 34 - 77
Wilkes.......................... 23 33 - 56
3-point goals--King's College 11-19 (Nick Reisig 4-7; Matt Fiorino 2-4; Dan Maguschak 2-3; Mike Wagner 1-3; Jim Schule 1-1; Tim Sanderson 1-1), Wilkes 1-12 (Chris Gulla 1-4; Anthony Gabriel 0-1; Tyler Breznitsky 0-3; Chris DeRojas 0-2; Greg Colucci 0-1; Tom Kresge 0-1). Fouled out--King's College-None, Wilkes-None. Rebounds--King's College 47 (Jim Schule 7), Wilkes 29 (Cliff Richardson 5). Assists--King's College 22 (Kyle Stackhouse 10), Wilkes 16 (Tom Kresge 3; Anthony Gabriel 3). Total fouls--King's College 20, Wilkes 17. Technical fouls--King's College-None, Wilkes-None. A-650
