Box Score
FEBRUARY 17, 2018

LADY MONARCHS WILL TRAVEL TO FACE DESALES IN MAC FREEDOM SEMIFINAL ON WEDNESDAY

WILKES-BARRE, PA --- The King's College women's basketball team was outscored by FDU-Florham 24-14 in a 75-62 loss to the Devils in a battle for first-place in the Middle Atlantic Conference Freedom on Saturday afternoon at McGrane Gymnasium in Wilkes-Barre.

The Lady Monarchs finish the regular season with a 15-10 overall record and 10-4 mark in conference play. FDU-Florham improves to 19-6 overall and 12-2 in the MAC Freedom while clinching the top seed in this week's conference tournament. King's drops down to the third seed and will travel to second-seeded DeSales on Wednesday. The Bulldogs defeated Delaware Valley on Saturday to also finish 10-4 in conference play and holds the tiebreaker over King's to receive the second-seed.

The Devils raced out to a 10-4 lead after a Gabrielle Harris three-pointer with 7:50 left. The Monarchs responded with a 7-2 run that was capped by a Rebecca Prociak steal and Lindsey Dippre fast break layup to make it a one-point game with five minutes on the clock. King's took their first lead of the game with a little over a minute remaining when Olivia Hoffman found Prociak under the basket to make the score 18-17. The teams traded baskets to end the quarter with the Lady Monarchs leading 19-18.

FDU-Florham opened the second quarter with four straight points to take a 22-19 lead. After trading baskets Cayla Staggers gave the Devils a five-point cushion at 30-25 with 3:34 left in the half. The Devils outscored King's 9-2 the rest of the way to take a 39-27 lead into the locker room.

The teams played fairly even to begin the third quarter with the Devils taking a 46-33 lead with 6:20 on the clock. The Monarchs then went on a run that started when Dippre drew a shooting foul and knocked down both free throws. Rachael DeTore connected on the backend of two free throw attempts, Hoffman scored on a driving layup, Erin Schmidt knocked down a three with a hand in her face and then Dippre found Mackenzie Yori open in transition for a three-pointer that brought the score to 46-44 with 2:43 left in the quarter. A big part of the run was the Monarch defense who forced two turnovers and four missed shots on six possessions. Yori tied the game when Prociak picked off a pass and found Yori in transition for a fast break jumper. The Devils responded with a 5-2 run over the final 45 seconds of the quarter to take a 51-48 lead into the final quarter of play.

The fourth quarter started off tightly contested with King's answering every Devil attempt at increasing their lead. The Monarchs found themselves down 59-55 after an Alexis Steeber fast break layup with 5:35 left. The Devils were only able to increase their lead up to five points with 4:09 left after Steeber knocked down two free throws. However, Taiah Thornton knocked down a three and then Harris knocked down two free throws to give the Devils a 10-point cushion with 2:58 left. Steeber scored her sixth straight point for the Monarchs on another fast break layup but that was as close as the Monarchs would come the rest of the way as FDU-Florham finished the game at the free throw line.

Rebecca Prociak led all scorers with 17 points and recorded her ninth double-double of the year with a game-high 16 rebounds. Olivia Hoffman also recorded a double-double in the senior's final regular season home game with 10 points and 11 rebounds. Alexis Steeber added 12 points while Mackenzie Yori had 10. Erin Schmidt knocked down two three-pointers for six points and Rachael DeTore had three points and three assists in the final home game for each.

King's shot 44.1 (26-59) percent from the field and held a 40-38 rebounding advantage.

Bria Smith led the Devils with 14 points and 13 rebounds. Taiah Thornton added 15 points and eight rebounds while Kendrea Williams had 14 points, Gabrielle Harris had 13 points, and Raven Dowling added 10.

King's will be back in action on Wednesday when they travel back down to Center Valley to face DeSales University in the MAC Freedom Semifinal at 7:00 p.m. King's won the first matchup this year against the Bulldogs at home 55-50 before falling to DeSales 61-56 in Center Valley last Saturday. Top-seeded FDU-Florham will host fourth-seeded Misericordia University in the other semifinal. The Devils swept the Cougars in both meetings this year.