MARCH 11, 2005
BOB ZIADIE
KING’S STUNS TOP-SEEDED RAMAPO TO REACH ELITE EIGHT
MAHWAH, NJ -- The King's College men's basketball team made another piece
of history when the Monarchs upset the top-seeded and host Ramapo College
85-78 Friday in the NCAA Division III Sectional Championships at the Bill Bradley Center. King's
advances to the
NCAA Elite Eight for the first time in school history.
With the win, fourth-seeded King's improved to 24-5 on the year and now
stands at 12-1 in games away from home. Ramapo, which ended its
season with a 24-5 mark, suffered its first loss at the Bradley Center after posting 14
straight wins on its home court.
With King's looking to
control the game tempo over the quicker, more athletic Roadrunners, the
Monarchs executed its plan and managed to take a 29-27 halftime
lead.
In the second half, he Roadrunners came out of the locker room and quickly
asserted itself to take a quick 31-29 lead on two foul shots each from
Eliazar Velez and Antoine Pryor. The teams would trade scores before
King's tied the score at 39-39
on a traditional three-point play from John Soboleski with 16:29
remaining.
Ramapo answered and eventually build a 53-45 advantage on a lay-up
by Amin Wright with 11:10 on the clock. But King's responded with a 10-0 run to take a 55-53 lead when
Soboleski netted seven points for the Monarchs during the spurt. With the game tied at
57-57 with 8:36 left, King's would take the lead for good.
Soboleski would score inside, followed by a basket by Jamie Cousart. After
a Ramapo miss, Brian Horgan buried a wide-open three-pointer to extend the
Monarch advantage to 64-57 with 7:16 left. After two foul shots by Wright cut the lead to five, Thomas Moore canned consecutive buckets for
King's to push the lead to 68-61 with 6:04 on the clock.
The Roadrunners responded with a big three-pointer from Pryor and a
monster dunk from Todd Lowber. After Horgan hit a pair of foul shots,
Lowder delivered another thunderous dunk to bring the Roadrunner crowd to
its feet as Ramapo drew to within 70-68 with 3:37 left.
But King's would not fold. Landon Gabriel would then make one-of-two foul shots for King's, but Velez
answered with a bucket to cut the lead 71-70 with 2:42 left. After a
Ramapo miss, Moore drained a huge three-pointer with 2:13 remaining to
extend the King's lead to 74-70 with 2:13 on the clock. Lowber would score
again for Ramapo to bring the Roadrunners to within 74-72 at the 2:05
mark.
The Monarchs would then get to the foul line eight times over the next
1:47 and made five of their attempts, the last giving King's a 79-72 advantage with 0:36 left.
After a three-pointer by Antoine Pryor with 0:26 on the clock, the
Roadrunners were forced to foul and Horgan, Soboleski, and Gabriel all made
both ends of their double-bonuses to seal the victory as the Monarch lead
grew to 85-78 lead with 0:07 left.
In the first half, King’s looked to avoid getting into a fast-paced
shootout with the Roadrunners, electing instead to engage in a half-court
affair. The Monarchs took a quick 3-0 lead on a three-pointer from Horgan.
But the Roadrunners would score eight straight points on the strength of consecutive treys from
Wright and Lowber to take an 8-3 lead with 16:51 left.
After Soboleski made one-of-two foul shots for King’s the Roadrunners would go on an 8-4 spurt and took a 16-8 advantage with 13:53 on the clock on a basket from Quameir Harding. The Monarchs would answer with a 11-0 run, on a basket from Horgan, two foul shots from
Cousart, a three-point play from Soboleski, and a pair of charity tosses from Marty O’Hora as the Monarchs took a 19-16 lead.
After a three-pointer from Ben Allen knotted the score at 19-19 with 7:49 left,
the Monarchs got a bucket from Soboleski and a three-pointer from Horgan to take a 24-19 lead with 6:36 on the
clock. After the teams traded baskets, Cousart made one-of-two foul shots, then followed with a steal and lay-up to give the Monarchs a 27-23 lead with 4:30 left.
Ramapo would score the next four points to tie the score at 27-27 with 2:42 remaining,
but Cousart closed out the first-half scoring with a pair of foul shots at the 1:18 mark as the Monarchs took a 29-27 lead at the
break.
King's win advanced the Monarchs to the Elite Eight for the first time
ever in its first NCAA tourney appearance since 1992. The win also enabled
King's to extend its single-season school-record for victories to 24 under
the guidance of fourth-year mentor J.P. Andrejko, the Freedom Conference
"Coach of the Year".
Horgan, the Freedom Conference "Player of the Year", led King's with 23 points and eight rebounds while Soboleski posted
a career-high with 21 points while adding eight rebounds, including six on
the offensive end. Cousart also posted a career-high with 20 points.
Moore finished with 10 points, six boards, and three assists.
Pryor led Ramapo with with 20 points while Lowber added 15. Velez
netted 12 points and six boards while Ben Allen netted 11 points and four
rebounds. Wright, the Roadrunners leading scorer, was held to nine
points but hauled in 12 boards.
King's will face York, a 99-80 winner over Worchester Polytechnic in
Saturday's Elite Eight, also in Ramapo's Bradley Center. The winner of the
7:00 p.m. all-Pennsylvania sectional final will moved on to the Division III Final
Four in Salem, Va.
Ticket sales Saturday will be held from 2:00 to 5:00 p.m. in the Bradley
Center, before the doors open again at 5:45 p.m. Cost is $5 for adults, $4 students. Children under age
two will be admitted free.
Ticket information is available at 201-684-7674.
