Box Score DECEMBER 13, 2014
KING'S MEN'S BASKETBALL POSTS 77-67 WIN OVER SUSQUEHANNA IN ROUND TWO OF MONARCH CLASSICWilkes vs. Gwynedd-Mercy Box ScoreWILKES-BARRE — The King's College men's basketball team built an 18-point lead early in the second half and held off an attempted rally by Susquehanna University as the Monarchs walked away with a 77-67 victory on the second-day of the round-robin FNCB/Monarch Classic Saturday in Scandlon Gymnasium.
With the win King's improved to 6-3 while Susquehanna slipped to 6-2. In the process the Monarchs avenged a 67-45 loss to Susquehanna in th finals of the Crusader's Pepsi Tip-Off Tournament on November 22.
In a nip-and-tuck first half KIng's trailed 25-24 with 7:19 left on the clock. King's forged ahead 26-25 when
John Fazzini canned a pair of foul shots at the 6:42 mark in what proved to be the last time Susquehanna led. The Monarchs followed with jumper by
Tom Heston and
Chris Fazzini before
Dan Borner made two free throws to push the King's lead to 31-25 with 3:41 to go. After a Crusader bucket Borner buried a three-pointer for the Monarchs to push the score to 35-27 at 3:22. King;s kept on the pressure and eventually took its biggest lead of the half at 41-30 after a short jumper by
Dan Rutecki and a pair of free throws from John Fazzino with 1:07 remaining. Susquehanna scored the final bucket of the half with 0:32 left to cut the lead to 41-32 at the break.
In the second half King's came out of the locker room with a 9-0 run, keyed by a five points from Borner, a jumper by
Chris Fazzini, and a pair of foul shots from Rutecki to build its biggest lead of the game at 59-32 with 16:22 left in the contest. Susquehanna, however, slowly chipped away and eventually closed the gap to two points, the final coming with 3:48 left to play on a three-pointer from Jason Dietrich.
But the Monarchs remained composed and used a driving lay-up from Chri Fazzini and four straight points from
John Fazzini to give King's a 72-64 led with 1:16 ;eft in the contest. A Susquehanna three-pointer by Matt McGugan trimmed the lead to 72-67 with 0:44 to play but the Monarchs closed out the game making 5-of-6 from the foul line to set the final score.
Borner scored a team-high 17 points with five rebounds and three assists to earn a spot on the all-tournament team while
Tim O'Shea added nine points, three rebounds, and one assist to also urn all-tournament honors.
John Fazzini followed with 15 points and seven rebounds while
Chris Fazzini added 14 points and three assists. Rutecki chipped in with 12 points and five rebounds.
Susquehanna was paced by all-tournament selection Matt McGugan who led all scorers with 30 points while making 6-of-7 from three-point range. Brandon Hedley followed with 12 points while Josh Miller chipped in with 11.
In the other day-two contest, Gwynedd-Mercy finished the event with a 2-0 record after posting a 90-78 win over Wilkes. Justin Knight earned tournament most valuable player honors with 24 points , seven rebounds, four steals, and three assists. Teammate Arron Goodman also earned an all-tournament berth after netting 24 points with seven rebounds, and three assists. In addition, the Griffins received 12 points each from Darnell Artis and Brian Hennessey.
Wilkes, which went 0-2 at the event, was led by all-tournament choice Alec Wizer who scored 16 points after netting 32 in Friday's overtime loss to Susquehanna. John Goffredo netted 13 points for the Colonels while Zach Bruner finished with 11. Tyler Jackson and Jeremy Hartman chipped in with 10 points each.
King's will next host the Cross County Challenge on January 2-3 in Scandlon Gym. Luzerne County colleges King's and Wilkes will face Lackawanna County rivals Scranton and Marywood in round-robin action.
The first night Wilkes plays Marywood at 6:00 p.m. While King's and Scranton square off in the 8:00 p.m. matchup. The following day Wilkes and Scranton play at 1:00 p.m. while King's and Marywood meet at 3:00 p.m.
