Box Score

NOVEMBER 22, 2011

KING'S WOMEN POST 65-60 VICTORY OVER SCRANTON

WILKES-BARRE — It may not be the King's-Scranton women's basketball rivalry of old, but for a single night, the one-time biggest rivalry in the area provided the same drama fans of the two teams remember. Fittingly, in a game that came down to the final seconds, King's walked away with a hard-fought 65-60 win Tuesday night in Scandlon Gymnasium.

With the win, King's enters the Thanksgiving break with a 3-1 record while Scranton slipped to 1-3. The win also marked the first for the Lady Monarchs over Scranton since the 2003-04 season and was the first win over the Lady Royals for King's sixth-year head coach Brian Donoghue.

From the mid-1990's through the 2006-07 season, the King's-Scranton women's basketball rivalry was the biggest in the Mid-Atlantic Region.

Scranton, though would leave the Middle Atlantic Conferences for the newly former Landmark Conference. The teams did not play for three years until squaring off last season stormed out of the gates early and walked away with a 87-49 home victory in the John Long Center.

Tuesday night, however, it was King's turn to get out to a fast start. Back-to-back three-pointers by Celia Rader and Samantha Simcox gave King's a 6-0 lead just 0:40 into the game before Marissa Manning and Simcox hit buckets down low as the Lady Monarchs raced out to a 10-0 advantage with 17:07 on the clock.

As expected, Scranton chipped away and drew to within 16-15 on a lay-up by Taylor Pallotta with 10:35 remaining in the opening stanza. But King's countered with a 9-0 run to build a 25-15 advantage on eight points from Paige Carlin and a pair of foul shots from Katlin Michaels. After Scranton cut the lead to 25-17 on a basket by Sarah Gage, the Lady Monarchs used a 6-1 surge to push the score to 31-18 with 3:00 on the clock.  After a Scranton three-pointer by Sidney Jaques cut the lead to eight, King's answered with another three-pointer by Rader at the 1:21 mark to take a 34-23 lead into the halftime break.

In the second half King's maintained a double-digit lead until the Lady Royals used a driving lay-up from Erin Boggan and a pair of free throws by Lindsay Fluehr to cut the lead to 39-31 with 16:05 remaining in the contest.  After two King's misses and a turnover, the Lady Royals cut the score to 39-34 on a three-pointer by Fluehr at the 15:22 mark.  The Lady Monarchs countered with a 7-2 run to up the margin to 46-36 with 12:26 left after a bucket by Lindsay Atchison and one-of-two foul shots by both Michaels and Manning.

But Scranton would not fold and put together a critical 14-2 run over the next six minutes to take their first lead of the game at 51-50 on consecutive three-pointers from Allison Sweeney with 6:22 to play.  King's, however, took advantage of one-of-two foul shots from Atchison and a huge three-pointer by Brittany Muscatell to forge ahead 54-51 with 6:04 on the clock.

After Scranton cut the lead to 56-55 on a Sweeney jumper, King's scored the next six points on inside baskets from Manning and Carlin, along with two foul shots from Michaels to give the Lady Monarchs a 62-55 advantage with 3:49 to go. 

Scranton, however, had one more rally left as a 5-0 run brought the Lady Royals to within 62-60 with 2:30 on the clock. After the teams traded misses and turnovers over the next two minutes, Gage missed a short jumper for Scranton and Muscatell rebounded for King's and was fouled with 0:05 left. The Lady Monarch senior guard made the firsts of two charity tossed to push the score to 63-60. Scranton called timeout immediately after the miss and had one last chance to send the game to overtime. But Simcox stole the inbound pass and cruised in for an uncontested lay-up at the 0:01 mark to seal the victory.

King's used a balanced attack with four players scoring in double-figures. Manning had 12 points with eight rebounds while Michaels also added 12 points with eight assists and five steals. Simcox added 11 points and seven boards while carlin also netted 11 points. Muscatell contributed with nine points, four rebounds, and two assists while Rader netted seven points with three steals. Defensively, King's forced 21 Scranton turnovers while committing only 11.

Scranton was paced by Sweeney with a game-high 18 points while Boggan had 12 points and 10 rebounds. Gage chipped in with 12 points to aid the Lady Monarch cause.

King's return to action Monday when the Lady Monarchs host MAC Commonwealth Conference contender Widener University at 7:00 p.m.


KING'S 65 – SCRANTON 60

SCRANTON (1-3)
Alison Sweeney 7-15 1-2 18; Sarah Gage 5-7 2-2 12; Erin Boggan 4-9 4-4 12;
Lindsay Fluehr 1-7 2-2 5; Shernai  Bentley 1-4 2-2 4; Sidney Jaques 1-3 1-2
4; Katherine Torto 1-9 0-0 3; Taylor Pallotta 1-3 0-0 2; Emma Hart 0-0 0-0
0; Christina Hiltunen 0-1 0-0 0; Lia DiSciascio 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 21-59
12-14 60.
 
KING'S COLLEGE (3-1)
Katlin Michaels 3-8 5-6 12; Marissa Manning 4-6 4-6 12; Samantha Simcox 4-7
1-2 11; Paige Carlin 5-12 1-2 11; Brittany Muscatell 2-4 3-4 9; Celia Rader
2-10 1-2 7; Lindsay Atchison 1-10 1-2 3; Molly Dahl 0-1 0-0 0; Ashley Davies
0-1 0-0 0; Jessica McHugh 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 21-59 16-24 65.
 
Scranton......................   23   37  -   60
King's College................   34   31  -   65

3-point goals--Scranton 6-25 (Alison Sweeney 3-9; Katherine Torto 1-7;
Sidney Jaques 1-3; Lindsay Fluehr 1-4; Christina Hiltunen 0-1; Lia
DiSciascio 0-1), King's College 7-23 (Brittany Muscatell 2-4; Samantha
Simcox 2-4; Celia Rader 2-8; Katlin Michaels 1-1; Molly Dahl 0-1; Ashley
Davies 0-1; Lindsay Atchison 0-3; Paige Carlin 0-1). Fouled
out--Scranton-None, King's College-None. Rebounds--Scranton 48 (Erin Boggan
10), King's College 34 (Marissa Manning 8). Assists--Scranton 15 (Erin
Boggan 5), King's College 12 (Katlin Michaels 8). Total fouls--Scranton 14,
King's College 12. Technical fouls--Scranton-None, King's College-None.
A-175