Box Score

Hammonds Scores 21 in King's Season Opening Victory

Wilkes-Barre, Pa. – The King's College men's basketball team had four players reach double figures scoring in a 106-64 season opening victory over visiting Penn State-Scranton Friday night at Scandlon Gymnasium.

The Monarchs came out of the gate hot scoring the first eight points on 3-pointers from Kyle Hammonds and Joe Caffrey sandwiching a Tom Heston layup.  King's never looked back building the lead to 20-4 on a Nate Oliver trey at the 12:54 mark of the first half. The first half lead swelled to 24 several times and was never smaller than 12 as King's took a 51-30 advantage into the half.

King's put the game away in the second half scoring the first five points of the frame and only allowing the lead to shrink to 22, 70-48, before going on a 19-8 run capped by a Hammonds jumper to push the advantage to 89-54.

Hammonds led all scorers with 21 points in just 17 minutes shooting 8-of-12 from the field. Oliver added 17 points off the bench for King's doing most of his damage from beyond the arc where he shot 5-of-7. Dan Rutecki netted 14 points, four rebounds and three assists in his collegiate debut.

Tim O'Shea was the fourth Monarch in double figures with 10 points to go with five boards and two helpers. Heston lead King's with 10 rebounds as well as scoring nine points and five assists.

The Nittany Lion attack was paced by 18 points from Yusef Savage. Joe Devine and Matt Langan each chipped in 13 points while Dequan Jackson netted 12.

King's shot an impressive 54.8% (40-73) from the floor while going 10-22 from long range. The Monarchs reached triple figures once last season in a 101-69 win over Penn State-Hazleton.

The Monarchs are back in action on Monday when they travel to Penn State Hazleton for a 7:00 p.m. start.