FEBRUARY 19, 2011
KING'S WOMEN ROUT WILKES 76-35, FINISH THIRD IN FREEDOM CONFERENCE TIEBREAKER
WILKES-BARRE –The King's College women's basketball team raced out to a 49-18 half-time lead and never looked back as the Lady Monarchs routed cross-town rival Wilkes University in the regular-season finale for both teams. It marked the 26th victory for King's in the last 27 meetings between the teams.
With the win, King's improved to 16-9 overall and finished in a three-way tie for first-place in the Freedom Conference with a 10-4 mark. Wilkes, meanwhile, ended its season at 6-19 and 2-12 in league play.
King's entered the final game of the regular-season in a four-way tie for the Freedom Conference lead with Misericordia, DeSales, and Manhattanville. DeSales defeated FDU-Florham and Manhattanville routed Misericordia, leaving King's, DeSales, and Manhattanville tied with identical 10-4 marks. By virtue of a series of conference tiebreaking criteria, Manhattanville was awarded the top seed while DeSales stands second and King's third.
King's will now travel to face DeSales in the Freedom Conference semi-finals on Wednesday at 6:00 p.m. The two teams split their regular-season with each winning on its home floor. Manhattanville will host Misericordia in the other semi-final pairing.
Against Wilkes, King's got out of the gates quickly when Celia Rader netted four points and Paige Carlin added three to spark a 9-2 start. After Wilkes cut the lead to 9-5 on a three-pointer by Sam Lynam, it marked the closest the Lady Colonels would come the rest of the way as the route was on.
An Abby Malloy three-pointer and an inside bucket from Samantha Simcox pushed the score to 16-7 with 13:58 left in the half. Later, a pair of foul shots by Lindsay Atchison, a driving lay-up from Paige Carlin, and a break-away lay-up by Kaitlin Michaels pushed the lead to 25-11 with 9:45 on the clock. A pair of soul shots from Rader and another driving score from Carlin upped the Lady Monarch advantage to 31-11 with 8:26 remaining in the opening stanza.
After back-to-back Wilkes buckets from Erin Schneider and Whitney Connolly trimmed the lead to 31-15 with 6:43 on the clock, King's blew the game open with a decisive 18-3 run the rest of the way to take a 49-18 lead at the half.
The second half would see much of the same as King's contributed to slowly extend its lead. With head coach Brian Donoghue liberally subbing in a number of reserve players, the margin hit 40 points with 8:09 remaining when Brittany Muscatell scored six straight points for the Lady Monarchs to stretch the King's advantage to 66-26.
Wilkes would come no closer than 34 points the rest of the way.
King's had 11 different players reach the scoring Column, led by Muscatell with 15 points and four rebounds. Rader and Carlin followed with 12 points each while Atchison contributed eight points and nine rebounds. Simcox tallied six points and a team-high 10 rebounds, while Jessica McHugh and Carissa Gegaris chipped in with six points each.
King's did an outstanding defensive job on Wilkes leading scorer Sam Lynam who entered the game ranked second in scoring in the Freedom Conference with over 19 points per-game. Lynam tallied just seven in the first half and 14 total, with the majority of her points coming long after the game was decided and primarily against King's substitutes. Connolly added eight points while Megan Kazmerski followed with six points and a game-high 13 rebounds.
KING'S COLLEGE 76, WILKES UNIVERSITY 35
WILKES UNIVERSITY (6-19,2-12Freedom)
Sam Lynam 5-16 3-4 14; Whitney Connolly 3-7 2-2 8; Megan Kazmerski 1-12 4-4 6; Erin Schneider 2-5 0-0 4; Amanda Pawlowski 1-2 0-1 2; Angela Palmerio 0-1 1-2 1; Sam Rohn 0-0 0-0 0; Brittany Ely 0-2 0-3 0; Helen Lawry 0-2 0-0 0. Totals 12-47 10-16 35.
KING'S COLLEGE (16-9,10-4Freedom)
Brittany Muscatell 6-9 2-3 15; Paige Carlin 5-10 1-1 12; Celia Rader 2-9 7-9 12; Lindsay Atchison 3-7 2-3 8; Carissa Gegaris 2-5 0-0 6; Jessica McHugh 2-6 1-1 6; Samantha Simcox 3-7 0-0 6; Abby Malloy 1-4 1-2 4; Kyley Henry 1-1 1-2 4; Katlin Michaels 1-8 0-0 2; Meagan Boccio 0-4 1-2 1; Molly Dahl 0-5 0-0 0. Totals 26-75 16-23 76.
Wilkes University............. 18 17 - 35
King's College.................. 49 27 - 76
3-point goals--Wilkes University 1-14 (Sam Lynam 1-6; Megan Kazmerski 0-7; Erin Schneider 0-1), King's College 8-32 (Carissa Gegaris 2-3; Kyley Henry 1-1; Abby Malloy 1-3; Celia Rader 1-6; Jessica McHugh 1-5; Paige Carlin 1-3; Brittany Muscatell 1-3; Molly Dahl 0-2; Meagan Boccio 0-3; Katlin Michaels 0-1; Samantha Simcox 0-1; Lindsay Atchison 0-1). Fouled out—Wilkes University-None, King's College-None. Rebounds--Wilkes University 44 (Megan Kazmerski 13), King's College 48 (Samantha Simcox 10). Assists—Wilkes University 5 (Megan Kazmerski 2; Whitney Connolly 2), King's College 13 (Katlin Michaels 4). Total fouls--Wilkes University 19, King's College 15. Technical fouls--Wilkes University-None, King's College-None. A-450
