WILLIAMSPORT, PA. (November 8, 2025)— The King's college men's basketball team opened their 2025-26 season with a road win on Saturday afternoon, besting Penn College by a score of 94-65. Five members of the red and gold found their way to double-digit scoring performances as first-year Interim Head Coach Rich Gray and the Monarchs improve to 1-0 on the season.

The Monarchs came out firing over the first 11 minutes of the game, hitting nine of their first 13 attempts from deep and jumping out to a 31-12 advantage. Spreading the wealth, seven King's players scored in that span.

King's kept the hot hand going throughout the remainder of the opening half, forcing five Wildcat turnovers on defense and going on a 27-13 run to close out the first. Two Monarchs found their way to double digits in the first half with Jaden Hall leading the way with 15 points on 5-6 from three-point range and Ben Rodner-Tims adding 11 points of his own.

In the first half, the Monarchs shot an impressive 60% from the field and 66% from three with more than half of their shots coming from beyond the arc. Great passing led to great shooting as King's tallied 16 first half assists as a team compared to Penn's four.

The Wildcats responded to open the second half, going on a 17-12 run over the first 7:42 as King's opened the second 0-4 from deep. King's responded with a run of their own, outscoring Penn 20-14 over the next eight minutes. Ray Gooley went 4-4 from the field on this stretch including two threes to put King's back ahead by 35 with just over six minutes left in the game.

The deficit proved to be too much for Penn as the Monarchs pushed forward to a 94-65 victory.

Three-point shooting proved to be the major difference in the contest as King's shot 50% on 18-of-36 from deep compared to the Wildcats 15.8% on 3-of-19 from beyond the arc.

Hall, Gooley, Rodner-Tims, Jake Karnish and Garrett Burys all surpassed 10 points on the afternoon as Hall and Gooley led the way with career-highs of 19 and 18 points respectively. Gooley finished a perfect 4-for-4 from three-point land while Karnish neared close to a triple-double, adding seven rebounds and seven assists.

King's men's basketball returns to action on Tuesday, November 11^th as the Monarchs head down the road to Wilkes University for a matchup with the Colonels at 7:00 p.m.