Box Score
FEBRUARY 18, 2012
KING'S WOMEN PREP FOR PLAYOFFS WITH 70-61 WIN OVER WILKES
WILKES-BARRE -- The King's College women's basketball team prepped for its role as the top-seed in next week's Freedom Conference Tournament as the Lady Monarchs closed out the regular-season with a 70-61 victory over cross-town rival Wilkes University Saturday in the Marts Center.
With the win, the Lady Monarchs ended the regular-season with a 21-4 mark and finished the Freedom Conference schedule with a school-record 13-1 ledger. King's 21 victories were the most for the program since the Lady Monarchs went 21-9 during the 2006-07 campaign.
King's jumped out to a 6-4 lead thanks to a pair of three-pointers from Katlin Michaels. Paige Carlin later added a pair of foul shots as the Lady Monarchs took a 10-7 lead with 16:06 remaining in the opening stanza.
After Wilkes' Allison Walsh converted a bucket and foul shot to tie the game ay 10-10, the Lady Monarchs used a three-pointer from Samantha Simcox to push the score to 13-10 at the 14:20 mark.
The Lady Colonels, however, responded with a 11-0 run to build a 21-13 advantage after five straight points from Megan Kazmerski with 9:05 on the clock.
King's would battle back and eventually took a 27-26 lead after a bucket by Michaels and a three-pointer from Carlin with 1:56 on the clock. After the King's defense forced a Wilkes turnover, Nina Magan drilled a three-pointer and Carlin scored on a driving lay-up to push the score to 32-26. The Lady Monarchs defense came up with another steal by Simcox, who cashed in with a lay-up as King's closed out the half with a 21-5 run to take a 34-26 lead at the break.
The Lady Monarchs continued to dictate play at the start of the second stanza as Simcox canned a jumper, Lindsay Atchison connected on a three-pointer and Simcox converted a short jumper to up the score to 41-26 at 18:35. After the teams traded misses, Atchison made good from short range to give the Lady Monarchs a 43-26 lead with 16:62 on the clock.
Wilkes finally scored its first bucket of the second half on a three-pointer by Kazmierski with 15:58 to play, cutting the lead to 43-29. King's slowly added to the lead as a driving bucket from Ashley Davies and a pair of free throws from Abby Malloy gave King's a 50-30 advantage with 12:56 left.
King's later built its biggest lead of the game at 23 points twice, the last coming after a Carlin jumper pushed the score to 58-35 with 9:37 on the clock.
Wilkes, however, would make a run against the King's reserve players and cut the lead to 58-46 after a Elena Stambone basket with 6:53 play. After King's regulars returned to the line-up, the Lady Colonels continued to trim the lead, cutting the score to 60-51 after an Allison Walsh three-point play with 4:46 on the clock.
King's countered with a three-pointer by Brittany Muscatell and a driving lay-up from Michaels to push the score to 65-51 with 3:41 remaining. But Wilkes scored five straight points on a bucket from Whitney Connolly and a three-pointer by Stambone to cut the lead to 65-56 with 1:50 to play.
After King's missed a pair of free throws, Connolly scored on a jumper to cut the score to 65-58 with 1:03 left. Manning scored on an inside bucket to give King's a 67-58 lead but Kazmierski quickly responded with a long three-pointer to cut the lead to 67-61 with 0:35 to go.
Muscatell was then fouled and made both charity tosses to push the score to 69-61 with 0:22 remaining. After a Wilkes turnover, Michaels was fouled with 0:07 left and made the first of two attempts to set the final score at 70-61
Michaels led King's with 15 points, eight assists, and three steals while Manning followed with 12 points, seven rebounds, and two blocked shots. Carlin tallied 11 points and four rebounds. Atchison contributed eight points, five rebounds, and three assists. Simcox chipped in with seven points, six rebounds, and five assists.
Stambone led Wilkes with 16 points and five rebounds while Kazmierski followed with 12 points and nine boards. Angela Palmiero chipped in with 10 points.
King's will open the Freedom Conference Tournament on Wednesday when the top-seeded Lady Monarchs host Eastern University at 7:00 p.m. in Scandlon Gymnasium.
