Box Score King's Men's Cagers Drop Heartbreaker to Misericordia 65-59
Wilkes-Barre, Pa. – The King's College men's basketball team led for most of the game, but couldn't hold off a late Misericordia surge, falling 65-59 to the visiting Cougars on Tuesday night in Freedom Conference action at Scandlon Gymnasium.
King's held a 55-50 lead with just 4:21 to play after a layup by
Pat O'Donnell. The Cougars scored the next six points to take their first lead of the night 56-55 on a layup by Steve Ware. Misericordia would extend their lead with a 3-pointer from Jesse Urich. Urich then hit a pair of free throws to extend the lead to 61-55with 41 seconds to play. The Cougars shot 4-of-6 from the charity stripe to ice the game.
The Monarchs opened the game fast scoring the first five points of the game and opening a 18-7 lead at the 12:58 mark in the first half led by 11 points from
Kyle Hammonds. King's was able to extend the lead to 24-11 at 10:31, but the Cougars got a jumper from Patrick Widdoss and a triple from Matt Greene to cut the lead to 24-16. The Monarchs notched the next seven points holding their biggest lead of the night, 30-16, with 6:38 to play in the first.
The teams traded baskets to open the second half before O'Donnell hit a layup to give the Monarchs a 42-30 lead at the 16:36 mark. The Cougars used a 13-3 run behind five points each from Joe Busacca and Urich to cut the King's lead to 45-43with just 10:34 to play.
King's answered with a jumper by O'Donnell and a
Mike Foster 3-pointer. Hammonds split a pair of free throws to put the Monarchs up by eight, 51-43 with 8:42 on the clock. Misericordia slashed the lead to 51-50 with a 7-0 spurt of their own capped by a Justin Grotevant jumper at 6:01.
Hammonds led the way for the Monarchs with 19 points and eight rebounds. O'Donnell added 12 points on 6-of-13 shooting and also grabbed eight boards.
Matt Fiorino and
Tom Heston each notched seven points.
Grotevant led all scorers with 26 points as well as pulling down five rebounds. Greene tallied 14 points while dishing out seven assists. Urich was the third Cougar in double figures with 10 points.
The Monarchs fall to 9-15 overall and 4-9 in Freedom Conference play. King's was eliminated from postseason contention. Misericordia improves to 12-12 overall and 8-5 in league play.
King's closes out the regular season against crosstown rival Wilkes on Saturday at 3:00 p.m. at Scandlon Gymnasium.
