FEBRUARY 10, 2018

KING'S WOMEN'S BASKETBALL FALLS LATE TO DESALES

CENTER VALLEY -- The host DeSales University women's basketball team outscored King's College 10-5 over the final four minutes of the game as the Bulldogs rallied for a 61-56 victory Saturday in Center Valley.

With the win DeSales improved to 13-10 overall and 8-4 in the MAC Freedom Conference. King's slipped to 14-9 and 9-3 and now stands in sole possession of second place in the league behind FDU-Florham after the teams entered the day tied atop the conference standings. The Lady Monarchs also saw their six-game win streak come to an end.

King's fell behind early 8-2 after the first 3:14 of the game, but the Lady Monarchs used a 902 run to take an 11-10 lead with 2:03 left in the first quarter after an inside basket by Rebecca Prociak and a driving lay-up from Lindsey Dippre. With DeSales holding a 14-3 lead, King's got a three-pointer from Mackenzie Yori to move ahead 16-14 with 1:29 on the clock. The Bulldogs, however, used an inside bucket by Bridget Walsh to knot the score at 16-16 at the end of the period.

The second period continued as a back-and-forth affair with neither team taking more than a two-point lead with the score being tied on four more occasions. With King's trailing 27-25, Yori canned another three-pointer to put the Lady Monarchs on top 28-27 with 0:58 to pay in the half. DeSales countered with a Kristina Polak jumper with 0:38 on the clock to move the Bulldogs ahead 29-28. But King's would send the game into the half-time break locked at 29-29 when she made one-of-two foul shots with 0:20 left,

In the third quarter King's trailed 33-30 when Yori connected on another three-pointer to tie the score at 33-33.  After the teams traded misses, Prociak made a pair of foul shots to put the Lady Monarchs ahead 35-33. Following a DeSales miss, Alexis Steeber  scored inside to give King's  a 37-33 lead with 6:13 on the clock.  After DeSales trimmed the score to 41-40 on a Polak jumper, Steeber delivered a three-pointer to give King's a 44-40 advantage with 2:59 on the clock. 

King's later took its biggest lead of the game when Olivia Hoffman made one-of-two foul shots to push the core to 45-40 with 2:26 to play in the quarter. Leandra Sterner would make good on a jumper for DeSales to trim the lead to 45-42, but neither teams would score the rest of the quarter.

In the fourth quarter Erin Schmidt made a three-pointer to put King's ahead 48-44. After a DeSales countered with a three-point bucket, Prociak scored to push the lead to 50-46 with 5:35 to play. The Bulldogs took a 51-50 lead on a pair of foul shots from Polak, but Hoffman countered with a bucket for King's to put the Lady Monarchs back on top 52-51 with 4:13 to go.

But Sterner scored six unanswered shots for DeSales to give the Bulldogs a 57-52 lead with 2:38 on the clock. King's trimmed the score to 57-53 when Dippre made one-of-two free throws with 2:21 to play.

Neither team would score again until Sterner was fouled with 0:33 left and made both shots to give the Bulldogs a 59-53 lead, then added two more foul shots with 0:19 remaining to make it a 61-53 game. Yori added a late three-pointer for King's to set the final score.

Yori led King's with 20 points and a career-high 10 rebounds while Prociak posted her eighth double-double pf the year with 11 points and 14 rebounds. Steeber tallied 11 points and eight boards.

Sterner led DeSales with 25 points and four assists while Polak and Morgan Birmelin netted 12 and 11 points respectively.

King's returns to action Tuesday with a 6:00 PM home matchup against Wilkes University in Scandlon Gymnasium.