JANUARY 13, 2012
KING'S WOMEN FACING STIFF CHALLENGE FROM FELLOW LEAGUE UNBEATEN EASTERN
WILKES-BARRE -- The last two unbeaten women's basketball teams in the Freedom Conference will square off Saturday at 1:00 p.m. in Scandlon Gymnasium when King's College plays host to Eastern University in a matchup that will leave the winner in sole possession of first-place.
Fans can follow the action on LiveStats at the following link:
http://www.sidearmstats.com/kings/wbball/index.htm
King's enters the matchup with a 10-3 overall record and is 3-0 in Freedom Conference game following a 63-56 victory over four-time defending league champion DeSales Wednesday night. Eastern, meanwhile, is 11-2 overall and is also 3-0 in conference games after upending 2011 Freedom Conference Tournament runner-up Misericordia 58-57, also on Wednesday. The teams split their two regular-season games last season with each team winning on the opponents' home floor.
The Lady Monarchs enter the matchup second in Freedom Conference scoring at 67.5 points while ranking second in scoring defense at 59.2 points per-game. Eastern, meanwhile, leads the league and is ranked 13th nationally in NCAA Division III with a potent 75.8 points per-game while standing fifth in the conference defensively at 63.4 points each contest.
King's features a veteran squad with 12-of-13 players returning from last season's squad which finished in a tree-way tie for first-place in the final Freedom Conference regular-season standings with DeSales and Manhattanville. The Lady Monarchs have played solid for the vast majority of the season and hope its experience will pay off against Eastern.
Leading the King's attack is senior guard
Paige Carlin who averages 12.7 points and 4.3 rebounds, with 25 steals. Fellow senior forward
Samantha Simcox follows with 11.6 points, 8.7 rebounds, and 40 steals with 18 three-pointers. Junior guard
Celia Rader adds 9.7 points and 2.7 rebounds with a team-high 23 three-pointers. Junior guard
Katlin Michaels contributes 8.8 points, 4.8 rebounds, 4.8 assists, and 20 steals. Freshman center
Marissa Manning has tallied 7.6 points and 4.7 rebounds with a team-high 17 blocks. Junior forward
Lindsay Atchison has posted 6.8 points and 3.5 rebounds while senior guard
Brittany Muscatell chips in with 3.8 points, 5.2 rebounds, and 2.6 assists.
Eastern is in the midst of turning around a program that has struggled in recent years. The Eagles won just seven games in both the 2008-09 and 2009-10 campaigns. The teams fortunes, though, would change a year ago when 5-9 guard Shante Jones transferred to Eastern. Jones spent her freshman season at Big Ten member University of Iowa. The following year she then transferred to fellow Division I member Cleveland State University.
Jones would again transfer, this time to Eastern, and made an immediate impact as she ranked fifth in NCAA Division III in scoring last season with a 22.4 points per-game average. More importantly, she led Eastern to a much improved 16-9 record as the Eagles narrowly missed a Freedom Conference playoff berth. In her last game against King's on February 2, she led the Eagles to a 55-53 triumph by scoring 25 points while adding 15 rebounds and four assists.
Jones is again enjoying an outstanding season, averaging 12.8 points, 4.8 rebounds, and 4.7 assists per-game. While her scoring is down Jone is serving as more of a facilitator thanks to another newcomer who is rapidly making a name for herself in the Freedom Conference. Freshman 6-0 center Meghan Nowak has played just 13 games in her career but has already established herself as one of the top players in the conference.
Nowak leads the Freedom Conference in scoring with 21.2 points per-game and is second in rebounding at 9.2 each contest. On Wednesday, Nowak turned in a dominant performance against Misericordia where she scored 30 points with 12 rebounds and was virtually unguardable as she kept Cougar center Christine Marks, the reigning Freedom Conference "Player of the Year" saddled on the bench with foul trouble. Marks finished with just nine points and four rebounds, well below her averages of 19.9 points and 10.5 rebounds.
Factor in 5-10 senior power forward Bekah Rowland, who adds 12.8 points and 6.6 rebounds and Eastern's "Big Three" ranks as the most formidable in the conference. In addition, sophomore guard Katie Lincoln averages 8.2 points, 4.5 rebounds, and 2.8 assists with 16 three-pointers while freshman guard-forward Kaleigh Boreman adds 7.8 points and 3.0 rebounds with 24 three-pointers.
Eastern enters the game with a five-game winning streak, last losing to Widener 78-70 at home on December 10. King's defeated Widener 82-75 on November 28 in Scandlon Gym.
The Lady Monarchs return to action Monday with a 7:00 p.m. non-conference home contest against Keystone College.
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