JANUARY 31, 2012
KING'S WOMEN' TRAVELING TO EASTERN FOR HUGE FREEDOM CONFERENCE MATCHUP
WILKES-BARRE — The King's College women's basketball team will play perhaps its biggest game of the season on Wednesday when the Lady Monarchs travel to St. Davids to face Eastern University in a battle of top Freedom Conference contenders. The Lady Monarchs enter the contest with a two-game lead over its nearest competition in the league standings.
Fans unable to attend the game can follow the action in two ways.
Eastern will offer Live Video at the following link:
http://bit.ly/eagle_vision
LiveStats will also be available at the following link:
http://www.goeasterneagles.com/livestats/
King's enters the game with a 16-3 overall record and stand perfect in the Freedom Conference with an 8-0 mark after posting important conference victories over DeSales and Misericordia last week. Eastern, meanwhile, is 15-5 overall and tied for second place in the Freedom Conference with Misericordia with a 6-2 league mark. The Eagles come off a 61-51 non-conference win over Cabrini Monday night. This will be the second meeting between the squads this season with King's winning the first contest 70-55 in Wilkes-Barre.
The Lady Monarchs have used a balanced scoring attack that has featured seven different players leading the team in game-scoring this season. Senior forward
Samantha Simcox tops the squad with 11.5 points, 8.2 rebounds, 26 three-pointers, and a team-high 59 steals. Senior guard-forward
Paige Carlin follows with 11.1 points and 4.1 rebounds while needing 58 points to reach the 1,000-point plateau.
Junior guard
Celia Rader has netted 9.7 points and 2.7 rebounds with a team-high 34 three-pointers. Junior guard
Katlin Michaels has contributed 8.9 points, 5.5 rebounds, 4.8 assists, and 43 steals. Freshman center
Marissa Manning has registered 7.7 points and 5.0 rebounds with a team-best 24 blocked shots. Junior forward
Lindsay Atchison has registered5.8 points and 3.6 rebounds while senior guard
Brittany Muscatell chips in with 4.2 points, 4.7 rebounds, and 2.4 assists.
King's is averaging 64.8 points per-game but has been outstanding on the defensive end where the Lady Monarchs yield just 55.6 points each contest. 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 nine opponents have scored no more than 56 points.
Eastern, meanwhile, has the highest scoring offense in the Freedom Conference with a 73.7 points per-game average but was held in check during its 70-55 loss to King's in the team's initial meeting back on January 14. The Eagles boast the top one-two punch in the league in freshman center Meghan Nowak and senior guard Shante Jones. Nowak, a candidate for Freedom Conference "Player of the Year" honors, tops Eastern with 21.5 points and 9.6 rebounds per-game.
Jones, who started her collegiate career at Big 10 member University of Iowa, was a pre-season Division III all-American and currently averages 15.6 points, 4.8 rebounds, and 5.1 assists. Senior power forward Bekah Rowland is another major contributor for the Eagles, averaging 13.0 points and 7.2 boards each contest.
King's will resume its Freedom Conference schedule on Saturday when the Lady Monarchs travel to Madison, NJ to face FDU-Florham.
