JANUARY 5, 2011
LADY MONARCH CAGERS GO COLD IN 71-55 LOSS TO GWYNEDD-MERCY
WILKES-BARRE – For the first 10 minutes of the opening half, the King's College women's basketball team engaged in a rapid-scoring, entertaining battle with traditional Colonial States Athletic Conference power Gwynedd-Mercy College.
Then, as sudden as the arrival of the crisp January wind in Northeastern Pennsylvania, King's went cold. And with it went the Lady Monarchs' chances for victory.
Gwynedd-Mercy outscored the Lady Monarchs 23-11 over the final 10:25 of the first half and walked away with a 71-55 victory in King's final non-conference game of the 2010-11 season. In the process, King's fell to 8-5 on the year while Gwynedd-Mercy improved to 7-3.
Both teams came of the gates on all cylinders and King's jumped out to a quick 11-6 lead after a layup by Paige Carlin and a three-pointer from Celia Rader with 15:55 left in the half. Gwynedd battled back to tie the score at 12-12 on a Lauren Smith bucket, but King's quickly recaptured the lead on a short jumper by Rader and one-of-two foul shots to take a 14-12 advantage at the 14:08 mark.
After a Gwynedd miss, Rader drained another three-pointer to push the lead to 18-12 with 12:59 on the clock. The Griffins however countered with a 6-0 spurt to tie the score at 18-18 on back-to-back three-pointers by Kristy McGrath and Smith with 11:17 remaining. After Molly Dahl canned two foul shots to put the Lady Monarchs ahead 20-18, Nicole Dougherty responded for the Griffins with two foul shots of her own to tie the score at 20-20 at the 10:12 mark.
Gwynedd followed with baskets from Bryn Cotteta and Dougherty to build a 26-24 lead with 7:54 remaining in the half. After a King's bucket by Katlin Michaels, the Griffins used a lay-up by Cotteta and a short jumper by McGrath to take a 28-22 advantage with 7:04 to go.
King's remained in striking distance and trailed 37-31 with two minutes to play in the half. But Gwynedd capitalized on some lax defensive play by King's to register a three-pointer by Dara Nelson at the 0:44 mark and another trey by Lauren Smith with 0:04 on the clock to give the Griffins a 43-31 lead at the break.
In the second half King's continued to struggle from the field and cut the lead to nine points on two occasions. But the Griffins slowly expanded stretched the margin, taking their biggest lead of the game at 17 points as a pair of foul shots by Stacey Judge pushed the Gwynedd advantage to 66-49 with 5:05 to play. King's would draw no closer than 15 points the rest of the way.
McGrath led the Griffins with 14 points and 15 rebounds while Smith and Judge tallied 12 points apiece. The Griffins also registered 20 assists on 28 field goals, using pinpoint passing to register several easy baskets against the Lady Monarch defense.
King's was paced by Rader with 19 points, including five three-pointers. Carlin followed with 14 points and six rebounds but no other King's player scored more than six points. Overall, the Lady Monarchs shot 27.3 (18-66) percent from the field and just 25.9 (7-of-27) percent from three-point range.
King's returns to the court Saturday when the Lady Monarchs resume Freedom Conference play with a 1:00 p.m. matchup at FDU-Florham in Madison, NJ.
GWYNEDD-MERCY 71, KING'S COLLEGE 55
GWYNEDD-MERCY (7-3)
McGrath, Kristy 6-19 1-2 14; Judge, Stacey 5-10 2-2 12; Smith, Lauren 5-10 0-0 12; Cotteta, Bryn 4-8 0-0 8; Nelson, Dara 2-4 1-2 6; Dougherty, Nicole 1-2 4-4 6; Neill, Brittany 2-8 0-0 5; Dominic, Jordan 1-4 0-0 3; Foreman, Danielle 1-2 0-0 3; Alston, Taylour 1-2 0-0 2; Washco, Rebecca 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 28-69 8-10 71.
KING'S COLLEGE (8-5)
Celia Rader 7-17 0-0 19; Paige Carlin 4-13 5-6 14; Molly Dahl 2-7 2-2 6; Brittany Muscatell 1-6 4-6 6; Katlin Michaels 2-7 0-0 4; Samantha Simcox 1-4 1-2 3; Abby Malloy 1-5 0-0 3; Nina Magan 0-0 0-0 0; Lindsay Atchison 0-7 0-2 0; Carissa Gegaris 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 18-66 12-18 55.
Gwynedd-Mercy................. 43 28 - 71
King's College.................... 31 24 - 55
3-point goals--Gwynedd-Mercy 7-21 (Smith, Lauren 2-5; McGrath, Kristy 1-2; Nelson, Dara 1-2; Foreman, Danielle 1-2; Dominic, Jordan 1-3; Neill,
Brittany 1-6; Cotteta, Bryn 0-1), King's College 7-27 (Celia Rader 5-10; Abby Malloy 1-3; Paige Carlin 1-5; Katlin Michaels 0-2; Samantha Simcox 0-1;
Lindsay Atchison 0-4; Brittany Muscatell 0-1; Molly Dahl 0-1). Fouled out--Gwynedd-Mercy-None, King's College-None. Rebounds--Gwynedd-Mercy 48
(McGrath, Kristy 15), King's College 44 (Katlin Michaels 8). Assists--Gwynedd-Mercy 20 (McGrath, Kristy 5), King's College 11 (Brittany Muscatell 5). Total fouls--Gwynedd-Mercy 14, King's College 12. Technical fouls--Gwynedd-Mercy-None, King's College-None. A-150
