Kyle Hammonds
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Kyle Hammonds scored 21 points in King's loss to Misericordia

King's Men Fall Down the Stretch to Miseri, Retain Mathematical Shot at Playoffs

2/18/2014 10:27:00 PM

Box Score
FEBRUARY 18, 2014

KING'S MEN'S BASKETBALL FALL TO MISERI DOWN THE STRETCH, KING'S RETAINS MATHEMATICAL CHANCE OF PLAYOFF BERTH

DALLAS -- The host Misericordia University men's basketball team broke open a 48-47 lead with 14:20 left in the second half by outscoring visiting King's College 30-16 the rest of the way as the Cougars walked away with an important 78-63 victory Tuesday night in the Anderson Center.

With the win, Misericordia 14-10 and 8-5 while the Monarchs slipped to 13-11 and 6-7 with one game remaining.

The first half was closely played throughout with seven lead changes and the game being tied on six different occasions.  Neither team led by more than four points until the Cougars took a 34-29 lead with 2:54 remaining in the opening stanza on an inside bucket by Steven Ware.

King's tied the game at 34-34 on a Joe Caffrey three-pointer before the teams traded three-pointers over the final minutes the teams entered the break deadlocked at 37-37.

In the second half Misericordia struck first on a three-pointer by Matt Greene to push the score to 40-37 and the squads proceeded to trade buckets over the next five minutes. With King's trailing 48-47, Greene hit consecutive three-pointer to put the Cougars ahead 54-47 with 13:21 left in the contest.

After a King's basket by John Dini, Misericordia used two foul shots form Cael Evans and two more form Steve Ware with 11:18 on the clock to give Misericordia the biggest lead of the game at 58-49.  After a Monarch turnover and two missed free throws, Ware scored again inside to give the Cougars a 60-49 advantage with 10:36 to go. Dan Rutecki then scored for the Monarchs to bring the score to 60-51 with 10:15 left.

After a 3:15 scoreless stretch for both teams, Misericordia finally broke through when Erik Kerns scored on a lay-up to push the Cougar lead to 62-51 with 7:00 on the clock.  After the teams traded baskets the Monarchs missed an inside bucket with 4:53 to remain behind 64-53. But King's forced a Cougar turnover on the ensuing possession before calling a timeout at the 4:33 mark.

After another King's miss the Monarchs were forced to foul and Ware made both shots to up the lead to 66-53. But Joe Caffrey countered with a jumper to bring the Monarchs to within 66-55 with 3:29 remaining. But Green provided the dagger when he buried a critical three-pointer with 3:13 to play, pushing the score to 69-55 at 3:13.

From there the Monarchs were forced to foul and Greene made good on two free throws to elevate the score to 71-55 with 2:59 on the clock.

King's shot just 39.7 (25-63) percent from the field compared to 47.8 (22-46) percent for Misericordia. The Cougars benefited from the free throw line, making 26 of 34 attempts while King's was 10-of-15. The Monarchs were also ice cold from three-point range, making just 3-of-20 attempts while Misericordia made good on 8-of-17 long-range shots.

Hammonds led King's with 21 points and eight rebounds while Rutecki followed with 12 points and four boards. Caffrey added 11 points and two assists while Heston contributed six points and four boards. No other King's player scored more than four points.

For the Cougars, Ware controlled the inside with 26 points, including a 14-of-15 effort from the foul line. Greene finished with 21 points while Kerns and Joe Buscarra added 10 each.

The Monarchs entered the game tied for fifth place in the Freedom Conference with the top-four teams receiving playoff berth. While the loss did not help the Monarchs' playoff chances, King's did catch a break as fourth-place Delaware Valley lost at fifth-place Manhattanville and fourth-place FDU-Florham lost at home to last-place Eastern.  Delaware Valley, FDU-Florham, and Eastern are all tied for third-place with King's a game behind heading into the final regular-season game on Saturday.

On Saturday, King's travels to Wilkes; Delaware Valley hosts FDU-Florham; while  Manhattanville hosts Misericordia. To have any chance of earning the fourth seed, King's needs to defeat Wilkes to finish at 7-7 in-conference. 

The Monarchs will then root for Misericordia to defeat Manhattanville, leaving the Valiants at 7-7 . Finally, King's best chance would come if FDU defeated Delaware Valley and secured third-place. 

An FDU win puts the Devils at 8-6.  King's was swept by FDU in the season series, leaving the Devils with the head-to-head tiebreaker with the Monarchs. An FDU win over Del-Val Losses by Manhattanville and Delaware Valley, combined with a King's win and an FDU victory would give the Devils third-place and leave King's, Manhattanville, and Delaware Valley tied for the fourth and final playoff berth.  

At that point a complicated conference playoff tie-breaker would go into affect.  In order for any part of the scenario to even have a chance to present itself, the Monarchs must win at Wilkes on Saturday at 3:00 p.m. at the Marts Center.

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