JANUARY 12, 2013

MICHAELS, ATCHISON POWER KING'S WOMEN PAST EASTERN

ST. DAVIDS -- Lindsay Atchison and Katlin Michaels combined for 47 points as the King's College women's basketball picked up an important 67-53 Freedom Conference road victory over Eastern University Saturday in St. Davids.

With the win, King's improved to 9-4 overall and 3-1 in the Freedom Conference while Eastern slipped to 6-9 and 2-2 in league competition. Eastern and King's last played in the 2012 Freedom Conference Tournament semi-finals with the Lady Monarchs picking up a last-second 55-53 victory.

On Saturday, the Lady Monarchs came out of the gates quickly, building a 7-0 lead after a Jennifer Fabian inside bucket at the 16:18 mark. After the Eagles trimmed the score to 9-4, King's countered with a pair of baskets by Fabian and Atchison, a three-pointer from Jessica McHugh, and one-of-two foul shots by Michaels, pushing the score to 17-4 with 12:11 left in the opening stanza.

Eastern, however, countered with a 10-0 run and cut the lead to 17-14 with 9:36 remaining in the half. The Lady Monarchs, though, answered with a surge of its own, outscoring the Eagles 11-3 over the next six minutes to build a 28-17 with 3:22 to go. King's would eventually take a 33-25 lead into the half-time break.

In the second half Eastern took its turn to make a strong start and immediately went to work with a 9-2 run to close to within 35-34 after a five straight points from Megan Nowak. King's would answer again and slowly extended the lead back to nine points thanks to five points from Michaels and three by Atchison to push the score to 43-34 with 13:30 to go.

After Eastern cut the lead to 43-37 at the 12:47 mark, the Lady Monarchs continued to surge with a 9-2 spurt to bring the score to 52-39 at the 8:26 plateau after back-to-back baskets by Fabian and Atchison.

After an eastern bucket, King's continued the onslaught as three-of-four foul shots from Michaels extended the score to 58-43 with 4:25 to play. But Michaels went to the bench with her fourth foul moments later, giving Eastern a slim ray of hope. But Atchison squashed an chance of a comeback with a big three-pointer to give the Lady Monarchs a 16-point lead at 61-45 with 3:35 on the clock.

From there, the Lady Monarchs sealed the deal with four-of-five foul shots to end the game.

Michaels finished the game with a career-high 24 points, while adding six assists, five rebounds, and three steals. Atchison, meanwhile, posted a career second-best 23 points and four rebounds while making 3-of-5 from three-point range. Fabian contributed with six points and 10 rebounds while Molly Dahl tallied six points and four boards.

For Eastern, Nowak, the reigning Freedom Conference "Player of the Year", posted 17 points and 12 rebounds. Kelsie Patton and Kaitlyn Dougherty added 12 points each.

King's returns to the court in non-conference competition Monday when the Lady Monarchs travel to Scranton to face Maywood University at 7:00 p.m. in a game to be televised live locally by FOX 56.