FEBRUARY 20, 2016

KING'S MEN FALL TO WILKES IN SEASON FINALE 83-77 

 

WILKES-BARRE -- The host Wilkes University men's basketball team earned the fourth and final Freedom Conference Tournament berth on Saturday as the Colonels held off visiting King's College to post an 83-77 victory in the final day of the regular-season Saturday in the Marts Center.

With the win, Wilkes improved to 13-12 overall and 8-6 in the Freedom Conference while the Monarchs ended their year at 12-13 and 6-8. King's finished the season in tied for fifth-place in the Freedom Conference with Manhattanville.

After Wilkes took a 43-36 lead at the half, the Monarchs came out of the break used a lay-up from Tom Heston, a three-pointer from Connor Hughes an inside bucket by Dan Rutecki and a driving lay-up from Heston to forge ahead 45-43 with 17:43 to play.

Wilkes countered with back-to-back three-pointers by Marcus Robinson to reclaim the lead at 49-45 but Heston and Rutecki scored consecutive buckets to propel the Monarchs to a 49-49 tie with 15:09 to play.  

But Robinson hit his third straight trey and Connor Evans added another long-range basket for Wilkes as the Colonels built a 55-49 lead with 13:24 on the clock. After Rutecki made one-of-two foul shots, Chris Fazzini followed with a driving layup to bring King's to within 55-52 at the 12:20 mark.

The Monarchs later closed the gap to 59-57 on a Chris Fazzini three-pointer but Wilkes responded with baskets by Quinlan Parsons and Robinson to stretch the lead to 63-57 with 8:52 remaining.

After the teams traded baskets King's freshman Jake Barber converted a traditional three-point play to cut the score to 67-65. But Wilkes answered again with two free throws by Zach Brunner to push the score to 69-65 with 4:50 left. 

King's continued to respond as Rutecki scored down low to trim the lead to 69-67 but as they did all game, Wilkes was able to answer as Brunner scored in the paint to give the Colonels a 71-67 lead at the 4:18 plateau.

After a King's miss, Alex Wizar buried a huge three-pointer to give the Colonels their biggest lead of the second half at 74-67 with 3:49 to play.  With their backs to the wall King's continued to fight hard and used a 7-0 run, fueled by a John Fazzini three-pointer, a pair of foul shots from Chris Fazzini, and an inside basket from Rutecki to cut the score to 75-74 with 2:08 left. The basket enabled Rutecki to reach the 1,000-point of his three-year career at King's.

But the Colonels had one final run of their own used a 6-0 surge to bring the lead to 81-74 after a lay-up by Brunner and one-of-two foul shots from Parsons with 0:31 to go. After a King's miss the Monarchs were forced to foul and Evans put the game away with 0:06 on the clock by converting both charity tosses to push the score to 83-74.   John Fazzini set the final scored by hotting a three-pointer at the buzzer for the Monarchs. 

Chris Fazzini led King's with 25 points, eight rebounds, and six assists. Rutecki followed with 20 points, four rebounds, two assists, and two steals. He now has 1,001 points in his career with his senior year remaining and stands as the 29th player in King's rich history to reach the milestone.

Heston posted 10 points and eight rebounds in his final career game while John Fazzini also added 10 points with five boards. Hughes King's final senior, had five points, two assists, and two steals in his final game.

For Wilkes, Brunner led the Colonels with 18 points and 12 rebounds while Wizar had 17 points and three assists. Robinson and Clay Basalyga had 11 points each.