Box Score

King's Men's Basketball Falls to Misericordia in Overtime

Wilkes-Barre, Pa. – Despite a career night from freshman Dan Rutecki the King's College men's basketball team dropped a heartbreaking 71-66 decision to Misericordia in overtime at Scandlon Gymnasium on Wednesday night.

In the extra session King's took a 62-60 lead on a pair of Tom Heston free throws. The Cougars came back and retook the lead on four straight points from Steve Ware putting the advantage at 64-62. Joe Caffrey tied the game at 64 with a leaner in the lane at the 2:14 mark of overtime.

Misericordia got a Ware layup with 39 seconds to play. After a King's miss Joe Busacca split a pair of free throw extending the Cougar lead to 67-65 with 6 seconds to play. Rutecki connected on two free throws to pull the Monarchs to within 67-66, but Misericordia went 4-of-4 from the charity stripe to hold on for the win.

With 5:06 remaining in the second half, Ware tallied an old-school 3-point play to give Misericordia a 56-52 lead. Rutecki answered with a layup and a jumper from the elbow to even the score at 56. Ware added another and-one bucket at the other end extending the lead back out to 59-56 with 1:05 on the clock. Rutecki tallied a jumper to make the score 59-58 at the 35 second mark. After Griffin Sponaugle went 1-of-2 from the line for the Cougars, Caffrey found Heston in the post with 6 seconds remaining to tie the game at 60 and force overtime.

The Monarchs trailed 38-36 at the 14:48 mark in the second half before going on a 7-3 spurt capped by a pair of free throws from Pat O'Donnell to build their largest lead of the half 45-39. The Cougars answered back with a Ware layup and Sponaugle 3-pointer to cut the lead to 45-44 with 9:45 to play. The teams traded baskets with neither team leading by more than four the rest of the half.

King's came out of the gates fast building a 16-10 lead behind a pair of 3-pointers from Caffrey and four points from Rutecki. Misericordia tallied a 5-0 run to get within 16-15 with 10:47 left in the first but Caffrey scored the next five points to push the lead back to six, 21-15. The Cougars rallied back with an 8-2 spurt of their own to even the score 23-23 at the 4:53 mark.

Nate Oliver connected on a 3-pointer at 3:29 to put King's back ahead 26-23, but Matt Greene had answered with a trey of his own to tie the game. Ware tallied a steal and a layup to put the Cougars ahead 28-26 with 1:48 to play in the first half. The teams traded baskets down the first half stretch with the Cougars holding a 32-20 edge going into the break.

The Monarchs were without leading scorer Kyle Hammonds due to an injury sustained in the game against Manhattanville on Saturday, but Rutecki picked up the slack scoring a career-high 22 points while also grabbing nine boards and dishing out four assists. Caffrey added a double-double with 19 points and 10 rebounds. Tom Heston pulled down 13 boards to go with six points.

Ware was the leading scorer for the Cougars tallying 26 points, four blocks and four steals. Greene finished with 14 points and six rebounds while Busacca added 11.

The Monarchs begin their second rotation through the Freedom Conference on Saturday when they host DeSales in their Play 4 Gray game to benefit King's women's basketball coach Brian Donoghue. King's will be selling t-shirts and have candy for spectators at both games. There will also be a fundraising reception at Uptown II restaurant. For more details click HERE.