Box Score

King's Men's Basketball Holds Off Eastern for Key Freedom Conference Win

St. Davids, Pa. -- The King's College men's basketball team held off a late surge from host Eastern to claim a key 87-83 Freedom Conference victory.

The Monarchs controlled the first half taking a 42-21 lead into the break behind 13 points from Joe Caffrey and 11 points from Dan Rutecki.

King's was able to sustain the first half success early in the second frame extending the lead to 22, 58-36, with 12:28 to play after a Nate Oliver 3-pointer. The Eagles cut the lead to 59-42, with a 6-1 spurt capped by an Austin Carroll trey. King's answered with 3-of-4 free throws to push the lead back to 62-42 with 10:12 to play.

The Eagles comeback started with an old-fashioned 3-point play from Jimmie Willis at the 9:53 mark that sparked a 17-2 run to bring Eastern to within 64-59 with 5:10 to play. Caffrey stopped the bleeding for the Monarchs with a 3-pointer with 4:45 to play to extend the lead to 67-59.

Rutecki pushed the lead to 71-61 with two free throws and a layup sandwiching an Anthony Parenti jumper. Connor Hughes split a pair of free throws to extend the King's lead to 72-61 with 2:08 to play. Eastern cut the lead to six, 74-68, with a 7-2 spurt capped by a Parenti layup.

With 1:10 to play Kyle Hammonds and Rutecki each split a pair of free throws to push the King's advantage to 76-68. Eastern answered with a Shaquan Turk layup. Hughes hit a pair of free throws with 49 seconds left, but Parenti and Willis connected on back-to-back treys for Eastern to cut the lead to 79-76.

Hughes hit another pair of free throws only to be answered by a Turk layup for the Eagles. Hughes hit two more from the charity stripe with 18 seconds to play, but Eastern again had the answer with a Carroll 3-pointer. After Hughes split a pair of free throws the Monarchs fouled with 5 seconds left putting Parenti at the line for a pair. He connected on both to pull the Eagles to within 84-83 with five seconds to play.

Caffrey pushed the King's lead back to three, 86-83, with two free throws with 5 seconds left. Turk missed a pair of free throws with 2 seconds to play and Pat O'Donnell closed out the game with 1-of-2 free throws with one second to play.

The Monarchs dominated the first half opening the game with a 17-6 spurt capped by an O'Donnell layup at the 11:32 mark. Eastern cut the lead to 19-10 at the 10:42 mark, but King's closed the half on a 23-11 run to take a 42-21 lead into the break.

Five different King's players reached double-figure scoring led by a career-high 21 from Joe Caffrey to go with four helpers and three rebounds. Rutecki tallied 20 points and four boards. Hughes finished with 13 points including going 11-of-14 from the charity stripe. Hammonds finished with 10 points and seven rebounds. Oliver also picked up 10 points.

The Eagles has six players in double-digits paced by 19 from Parenti. Willis chipped in 15 points and six boards. Malcolm Garrison added 13 points while Turk and Carroll each finished with 11.

With the win the Monarchs improved to 11-9 overall and 4-5 in the Freedom Conference. Eastern falls to 7-13 overall and 1-8 in league play.

King's is back in action on Saturday when they travel to FDU-Florham for a 3:00 p.m. tip-off against the Devils in Freedom Conference action.