Box Score

FEBRUARY 15, 2014

KING'S WOMEN SQUEAK OUT 72-71 WIN OVER MANHATTANVILLE

WILKES-BARRE --  The host King's College women's basketball placed five players in double-figure scoring and just missed adding a sixth as the Lady Monarchs used perhaps its most balanced effort of the season in a 72-71 victory over Manhattanville College in a Freedom Conference matchup Saturday in Scandlon Gymnasium.

With the win, King's improved to 6-17 overall and 2-10 in conference play while Manhattanville fell to 9-14 and 4-8 in league competition.

King's opened the game with a 5-0 spurt thanks to a three-pointer by Jessica McHugh and a driving lay-up by Kayla Feairheller. The Valiants answered with a  14-4 run to take a 14-9 lead after a jumper by Ashley Raaf with 13:15 left in the half.  King's tied the score at 14-14 after a three-pointer from Jennifer Fabian but the Valiants responded with an inside basket by Alyson Caiazzo and a jumper from Raaf to push the score to 18-14 at the 1:07 mark. 

King's eventually chipped away and tied the score at 20-20 with 8:45 on the clock when Marisa Manning scored five straight points. King's continued to attack with a jumpers from Tara Zdancewicz and Feairheller as well as a pair of free throws by Fabian to build a 26-21 lead at the 6:47 mark. After the teams traded turnovers, Zdancewicz buried another jumper to give the Lady Monarchs a 28-21 lead with 4:54 left in the opening stanza.

The Valiants countered with a 8-2 spurt to close to within 30-29 on a Candice Scott-Mason jumper with 1:51 to go, but King's Kasey Seitz drained a three-pointer to push the Lady Monarch advantage to 33-29 with 1:22 left. But Manhattanville ended the half with a 4-0 spurt, aided by a questionable foul call against King's with no time remaining, allowing Caiazzo to make two free throws and tie the score at 33-33 at the break.

In the second half Manhattanville scored the first four points and took a 37-33 lead after a basket by Caiazzo. After Seitz canned another three-pointer to cut the score to 37-36, the teams traded baskets with the Valiants maintaining a close lead  until the 13:36 mark when KIng's tied the score at 41-41 on two free throws from Feairrheller with 13:36 on the clock.

The Lady Monarchs eventually took the lead for good on a driving lay-up by Manning, giving the Lady Monarchs a 50-49 advantage with 9:59 to go. After a Manhattanville turnover, King's took advantage with five straight points from McHugh to push the score to 55-49 with 7:03 remaining.

After a Valiant score by Alyson Chase, the Lady Monarchs used buckets from Manning and Zdancewicz to up the lead to 59-51 with 5:29 to go. With King's maintaining an eight points lead (66-58) with 2:02 left, the Valiants used a 7-1 spurt to come to within 66-65 following a Caiazzo basket with 1:01 left.

But King's came up big at the foul line when Seitz made four foul shots and Fabian added two more to give the Lady Monarchs a 72-68 with 0:08 to play.  Manhattanville cut the final margin to one points when Raaf banked in a desperation threes-pointer at the buzzer.

Manning led King's with 20 points, six rebounds, and five assists to pace five double-figure scorers while Zdancewicz was solid with 13 points and three rebounds. Feairheller had 10 points and seven rebounds; Seitz tallied 10 points, four rebounds, and three assists; while Fabian just missed a double-double, finishing with nine points, 10 rebounds, five steals, and three assists.   McHugh, a senior forward, played her final game in Scandlon Gym and put forth a strong outing with 10 points, five rebounds, two assists and one steal.

Manhattanville was led by Caizzo with 23 points and nine rebounds while Ashley Franklin and  Raaf added 16 points each.

King's will return to the court Tuesday when the Lady Monarchs travel to face Misericordia at 6:00 p.m. in the Anderson Center.