KING'S WOMEN FALL TO DESALES IN FREEDOM CONFERENCE SEMI-FINALS, 66-52

CENTER VALLEY – Entering its Freedom Conference semi-final matchup at defending champion DeSales, King's College women's basketball coach knew rebounding would be the key to victory. Donoghue's instinct proved correct as DeSales dominated the glass to the tune of a 50-27 advantage and ended King's season with a 66-52 verdict Wednesday night in Billera Hall.

With the win, DeSales (18-8) advanced to Saturday's Freedom Conference championship game while King's closed out its season at 16-10.

In the first half DeSales opened up a 4-0 lead before King's used buckets by Paige Carlin and Lindsay Atchison to tie the score. After the team traded baskets, the Bulldogs score four straight points to take a 10-6 lead. King's used a pair of foul shots by Brittany Muscatell to close to within 10-8, but DeSales used a 6-2 spurt thanks to all six points by Colleen Gavin to take a 15-10 lead with 10:27 remaining in the half.

King's cut the lead to 17-14 on a bucket by Molly Dahl, but DeSales used a three-pointer by Lori Lidlow and a rebound and bucket by Cherelle Simmons to extend the Bulldog advantage to 22-14 with 7:04 left on the clock.

After the teams traded scores, Carlin ignited a 7-2 King's spurt with a three-pointer, followed by two foul shots by Atchison and a driving lay-up from Katlin Michaels to trim the score to 26-33 with 4:33 to go. After the teams traded scores over the next four possessions, DeSales would hold a 30-27 lead with 3:22 left in the half. 

From there, however, the Bulldogs ended the opening stanza with a critical 6-0 spurt to take a 36-27 lead at the break. King's, which lived by the three-pointer for much of the year, was just 1-of-9 from long range and was outrebounded by DeSales 21-13 over the opening 20 minutes of play.

In the second half, however, DeSales took complete control of the game when the Bulldogs came out of the locker room and dominated the offensive glass. In the opening 4:43 of the second stanza, DeSales scored the first 10 points, keyed in large part by six big offensive rebounds resulting in extra possessions and additional scoring opportunities which the Bulldogs capitalized on. The surge resulted in a 46-30 lead with 15:17 left in the contest.

After Muscatell canned a trey for King's to cut the lead to 46-30, DeSales answered with a 4-0 spurt to stretch the lead to 51-30 with 12:20 on the clock.

King's attempted to answer when Carlin converted a traditional three-point play and Atchison buried a three-pointer to cut the lead to 51-36, but DeSales responded with five of the next seven points to push the score to 56-38 with 7:16 to go.

The Lady Monarchs would not quit, however and used 9-4 run to cut the lead to 64-52 with 1:24 to play but would come no closer.

Lidlow led DeSales with 24 points and four assists. Glovas followed with 10 points and 12 rebounds while Simmons added 10 points and 10 boards. Montchyk chipped in with five points and nine rebounds. It was the Bulldog's work on the boards, though that proved to be the difference. Of DeSales' 50 total rebounds, 21 came on the offensive glass, including 14 offensive boards in the second half.

Carlin paced King's with 17 points and five rebounds while Michaels added 12 points, four rebounds, and four steals.  Muscatell tallied nine points, three boards, and three assists. As it had in its last two losses, King's struggled offensively, shooting just 33.3 (18-54) percent from the field. The Lady Monarchs, who ranked as one of the top three-point shooting teams in the conference, was ice cold from long-range, hitting on only 4-of-22 from down town. King's leading scorer Celia Rader, who canned 60 three-pointers during the season was 0-7 from long range.

The disappointing end does have a silver lining, however, as the Lady Monarchs do not graduate a single player and return its entire roster next season. A year of experienced for a young King's squad will only help the team as it looks to make even greater strides in 2011-12.

DESALES UNIVERSITY 66, KING'S COLLEGE 52

KING'S COLLEGE (16-10 overall)
Paige Carlin 6-10 4-5 17; Katlin Michaels 4-11 4-4 12; Brittany Muscatell 3-5 2-2 9; Lindsay Atchison 2-9 2-2 7; Molly Dahl 2-4 0-1 4; Abby Malloy 1-1 0-0 3; Nina Magan 0-0 0-0 0; Carissa Gegaris 0-2 0-0 0; Celia Rader 0-9 0-0 0; Samantha Simcox 0-2 0-0 0; Jessica McHugh 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 18-54 12-14 52.

DESALES UNIVERSITY (18-8 overall)
Lori Lidlow 8-19 5-6 24; Cherelle Simmons 5-8 0-0 10; Sondrine Glovas 1-8 8-10 10; Colleen Gavin 4-6 0-0 8; Megan Montchyk 1-4 3-6 5; Faith Gilbert 1-7 2-4 4; Taylor Greene 1-1 0-0 3; Hannah Smith 1-6 0-0 2; Shaina Dymond 0-0 0-0 0; Alexiah Grant 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 22-60 18-26 66.

King's College...................   27   25  -   52
DeSales University............   36   30  -   66

3-point goals--King's College 4-22 (Brittany Muscatell 1-2; Lindsay Atchison 1-4; Paige Carlin 1-3; Abby Malloy 1-1; Carissa Gegaris 0-1; Celia Rader 0-7; Samantha Simcox 0-1; Molly Dahl 0-1; Katlin Michaels 0-2), DeSales University 4-16 (Lori Lidlow 3-4; Taylor Greene 1-1; Sondrine Glovas 0-4; Megan Montchyk 0-1; Faith Gilbert 0-3; Hannah Smith 0-2; Alexiah Grant 0-1). Fouled out--King's College-Katlin Michaels, DeSales University-None. Rebounds--King's College 27 (Lindsay Atchison 7), DeSales University 50 (Sondrine Glovas 12). Assists--King's College 11 (Lindsay Atchison 5), DeSales University 16 (Hannah Smith 6). Total fouls--King's College 17, DeSales University 16. Technical fouls--King's College-None, DeSales University-None. A-650