Box Score

Strong Second Half Lifts King's Men's Basketball to Key Freedom Conference Win

Wilkes-Barre, Pa. – Freshman Dan Rutecki posted his first career double-double to help King's to a key 71-54 victory over Delaware Valley in Freedom Conference play Wednesday night at Scandlon Gymnasium.

The Monarchs improved to 12-10 overall and 5-6 in Freedom Conference play while Delaware Valley slipped to 11-11 overall and 6-5 in the league.

King's held a 29-22 lead at the break and came out firing in the second half. Rutecki scored a layup on the Monarchs opening possession to push the lead to 31-22. Francis Arnold split a pair of free throws for the Aggies before Rutecki answered with an old-fashioned 3-point play that sparked a 12-0 run to extended the King's lead to 43-23 at the 15:07 mark.

Delaware Valley was able to get as close as 14 twice in the second half the latest with 8:21 to play on a pair of Chris Moran foul shots cutting the King's edge to 53-39. The Monarchs responded with an 11-4 spurt capped by a Tom Heston layup to go up 64-43 with 5:23 remaining. The lead never fell below 17 the rest of the way.

The Aggies took an early 5-2 lead with a Moran layup and Francis triple sandwiching a Heston bucket. King's scored an 11-1 run keyed by four points each from Rutecki and Kyle Hammonds to take a 13-6 lead with 13:59 to play in the first half.

Zach Sly and Moran stopped the King's run with back to back layups to get within 13-8, but the Monarchs tallied the next 10 points to extend the lead back out to 23-10 at the 6:50 mark after two Connor Hughes free throws. The Aggies answered with a 9-1 spurt of their own to cut the lead to 24-19 with 3:50 remaining in the first.

Rutecki tallied an old school 3-point play and then a pair of shots from the charity stripe to put King's back up 10, 29-19, but Sly closed out the half with a triple of his own to make the King's halftime advantage 29-22.

The Monarchs had four players score in double figures paced by 18 points from Rutecki to go with 15 boards. Hughes chipped in 13 points and four rebounds. Heston added 11 points, seven rebounds and five helpers while Hammonds netted 11 points and seven boards.

Moran was the leading scorer for the Aggies with 12 points and four rebounds. Sly was the only other Delaware Valley player to reach double figures with 11.

The Monarchs are back in action on Saturday when they host Manhattanville at 3:00 p.m. at Scandlon Gymnasium. King's will honor their seniors prior to the game.