FEBRUARY 8, 2014

KING'S MEN FALTER DOWN THE STRETCH UB LOSS TO FDU

MADISON, NJ — The King's College men's basketball team was unable to make a 42-41 lead stand up over the final 7:06 of the game as host FDU-Florham outscored the Monarchs 20-10 the rest of the way to post a 61-52 victory in a critical Freedom Conference matchup Saturday in the Ferguson Center in Madison, NJ.

With the loss, King's slipped to 11-10 overall and 4-6 in Freedom Conference play.  FDU, meanwhile, improved to 11-10 and 6-4 in league competition. More important, the loss leaves King's in sixth-place in the eight-team Freedom Conference standings and the season series sweep by FDU, tied for fourth-place with Delaware Valley, gives the Devils the head-to-head tiebreaker over the Monarchs.

Both teams struggled offensively in the first half with King's shooting just 29.0 (9-31) percent from the field while FDU was even worse at 20.7 (6-29) percent as the Monarchs took a 23-17 advantage into the half-time break.

The second half found the Monarchs build its biggest lead of the game at 25-18 on an inside bucket by Tom Heston with 18:54 to play.  FDU, however, would use a 12-2 surge to take a 30-27 lead on a  bucket by John Flete with 15:50 remaining.

King's tied the score three times until eventually taking a 42-41 lead with 7:06 left. It would be the last time the Monarchs had the lead as Kevin Furlong scored inside with 6:35 to play to put the Devils on top 43-42.  After another Devil bucket by Flete gave FDU a 45-42 lead, KIng's answered with two doul shots by Tom Heston to trim the score to 45-44 with 4:53 on the clock.  But FDU used a jumper by Trevor Sykes and a big three-pointer from Trevor Furlong to push the Devil lead to 50-44 with 2:11 to go. After Heston made one-of-two foul shots for King's to set the score at 50-45, Sykes scosred again and Furlong was fouled after a King's miss, going one-of-two from the line to up the lead to 53-45 at the 1:08 mark.

Connor Hughes hit a three-pointer for King's to cut the lead to 53-48 with 0:52 to play but Flete was quickly fouled and hit both shots to bring the score to 55-48 with 0:50 left. Heston answered with an inside basket for King's to cut the score to 55-50 at 0:42 but FDU used buckets by Furlong, Flete, and a pair of free throws from Sykes with 0:06 left to seal the victory.

The Monarchs were paced by Heston with 18 points and nine rebounds. Kyle Hammonds followed with 13 points and three boards. Joe Caffrey posted seven points with three steals while Hughes and Pat O'Donnell tallied six points apiece. King's finished the game shooting just 30.9 (21-68) percent from the field and 23.1 (3-13) percent from three-point range. The Monarchs were 7-of-11 from the foul like while FDU more than doubled KIng's free throw attempts, going 15-24 from the charity stripe. The Devils also owned a 48-41 rebounding advantage.

FDU was led by Furlong with 22 points and seven boards while Flete added 18 points and four rebounds. Sykes contributed 13 points and five rebounds while Will Green chipped in with five points and 13 boards.

The loss continued King's recent second-half woes as the Monarchs allowed 43 or more points for the third straight game over the course of the final period. The Monarchs yielded 43 in a 83-68 home loss to DeSales before surrendering a whopping 62 in nearly squandering a 22-point lead during a 87-83 win at Eastern on Thursday. On Saturday, King's gave up 44 more points in the second half against FDU. In all, King's has allowed an average of 49.7 second half points the past three games.

The Monarchs return home Wednesday night with an important 8:00 p.m. conference matchup against Delaware Valley College.