JANUARY 27, 2012
KING'S WOMEN LOOKING TO REMAIN UNBEATEN IN FREEDOM CONFERENCE AS LADY MONARCHS HOST DEFENDING CHAMPION DESALES
WILKES-BARRE — The King's College women's basketball team will look to keep its unbeaten record alive in Freedom Conference games when the Lady Monarchs host four-time defending conference champion DeSales University Saturday at 1:00 p.m. in Scandlon Gymnasium. The game will be preceded by the annual King's Women's Alumni Game at 10:00 a.m.
Fans unable to attend the game can follow the action on WRKC Radio 88.5 FM. WRKC Live also provides a live Internet voice stream of the broadcast at the following link:
http://wrkc.kings.edu/list/current.html
Fans can also follow the action on LiveStats at the following link:
http://www.sidearmstats.com/kings/wbball/index.htm
The Lady Monarchs enter the matchup against DeSales with a 15-3 overall record and are 7-0 in Freedom Conference games after King's concluded the first cycle of league games with a 51-44 victory over Misericordia. The win enabled King's to open a two-game lead over DeSales, Eastern, and Misericordia in the race for the Freedom Conference Tournament number-one seed. DeSales, meanwhile, is 10-8 overall and 5-2 in league competition following a dramatic 64-60 comeback victory over Manhattanville Wednesday night. King's had also rallied past Manhattanville on Saturday for a last-second 51-49 triumph.
King's defeated DeSales 63-56 in the first meeting between the teams on January 11 in Center Valley in a closely contested game throughout. The Bulldogs, however, own a 28-23 lead in the all-time series between the two teams. Last season the teams split their regular-season meeting before DeSales ousted King's in the Freedom Conference Tournament semi-finals.
The Lady Monarchs have been successful with a balanced offense as well as stingy defense that had held opponents to a Freedom Conference-best 56.5 points per-game. The last time a team scored over 60 points against the King's defense was on December 30 when Illinois Wesleyan, a 2011 "Final Four" qualifier, posted a 83-61 win over the Lady Monarchs in a tournament in California. Each of King's last eight opponents have scored no more than 56 points.
Offensively, King's is averaging 65.9 points per-game and have spread the wealth as seven different players have led the team in scoring in the 18 games the team has played thus far. Senior forward
Samantha Simcox tops the squad with 11.9 points per-game. Her 8.3 rebounds and 3.1 steals per-game both rank third in the Freedom Conference. Senior guard-forward
Paige Carlin, who is 66 points away from reaching the 1,000-point plateau, follows with 11.2 points and 4.2 rebounds while junior guard
Celia Rader adds 10.0 points, 2.7 rebounds, and is fourth in the Freedom Conference with 34 three-pointers.
Junior guard
Katlin Michaels has played solid all-around with averages of 8.8 points, 5.3 rebounds, 4.9 assists, and 2.4 steals. Freshman center
Marissa Manning has posted 7.7 points and 4.6 rebounds with a team-high 22 blocked shots while junior forward
Lindsay Atchison tallies 5.9 points and 3.3 rebounds. Senior guard
Brittany Muscatell chips in with 4.3 points, 4.8 rebounds, and 2.5 assists.
DeSales, meanwhile, enters the game averaging 64.7 points while allowing 61.9 each game. Sophomore guard Sondrine Glovas tops the squad with 15.5 points, 4.2 rebounds, and 3.0 steals with 26 three-pointers. Junior forward Colleen Gavin follows with 10.2 points and 6.7 rebounds.
Senior forward Cherelle Simmons adds 9.3 points and 8.1 rebounds with a team-high 26 blocks while sophomore guard Faith Gilbert tallies 6.8 points and 2.8 rebounds with 20 three-pointers. Sophomore guard Alexiah Grant has posted 6.6 points while freshman forward Alex Suk chips in with 6.6 points and 5.4 boards.
King's will then return to Freedom Conference action on Wednesday when the Lady Monarchs travel to St. David's to face Eastern in a 6:00 p.m. Matchup.
