FEBRUARY 13, 2007
MONARCH MEN UPSET BY WILKES, 66-58
WILKES-BARRE –
Host Wilkes University outscore King's College 11-3 over the final 2:42
of play as the Colonels posted a 66-58 upset Tuesday in the Marts
Center.
With the win, Wilkes improved to 11-11 overall and
3-10 in Freedom Conference play. King's, which was looking to wrap up
the top seed in the upcoming Freedom Conference playoffs, slipped to
16-8 and 10-3.
With King's holding a 50-49 lead after a bucket by
John Soboleski with 5:23 left, Wilkes took a 52-50 advantage on a
three-pointer by Tom Kresge at the 4:29 mark. Jamie Cousart, who was
saddled with foul trouble the entire game, made a lay-up to tie the
score at 52-52 with 4:12 to play. King's would take a one-point lead
when Vince Scalzo made the second of two foul shots with 3:48 remaining,
but the Colonels used another three-pointer from Kresge to take a 55-53
lead with 3:23 remaining. Cousart would then follow with a basket to tie
the score at 55-55 with 2:42 left in the contest.
The Colonels would take a 57-55 lead on an inside
basket with 2:15 left, but Cousart countered with a pair of foul shots
to again knot the score at 57-57 with 1:56 on the clock. Wilkes would
then come up big when Jeremy Kable connected on a three-pointer to put
Wilkes on top 60-57 with 1:07 left. John Soboleski would make just
one-of-two foul shots for King's to cut the lead to 60-58 with 0:53
left, but Kline added another inside basket with 0:32 remaining to give
Wilkes a 62-58 advantage.
After a King's miss, the Monarchs were forced to
foul and Kresge and Adam Gabriel made four charity tosses over the final
0:20 to seal the victory.
In the first half King’s utilized a strong outside
shooting game, jumping out to a 9-5 lead on the strength of
three-pointers from Scalzo, Kofi Dwebeng, and Vince Sobocinski. Wilkes
would use a 7-4 surge to cut the lead to 13-12 when Kline made a pair of
foul shots with 12:16 remaining. But the Monarchs netted six straight
points on back-to-back treys from Ryan Nenstiel and Jim Welsh to up the
lead to 19-12 with 11:24 on the clock.
Tom Gulla would score four straight points for the
Colonels, but the Monarchs answered with a steal and dunk from Ryan
Nenstiel, one-of-two foul shots by Soboleski, and another three-pointer
from Sobocinski to give King’s a 25-16 lead with 5:17 remaining in the
half. Wilkes, however, would outscore King’s 9-5 the rest away and
clawed to within 30-25 at the break thanks to a three-pointer from
Jeremy Kable with 0:02 on the clock.
In the second half, King's was unable to get into
a rhythm and was outscored 41-28 over the final 20 minutes of play.
King's, which made 7-of-13 three-pointers in the first half, would
manage just one long-range attempt in the second stanza, due largely to
a strong defensive effort by Wilkes. The Monarchs also hurt themselves
with uncharacteristic turnovers, coughing up the ball 16 times.
Part of the Monarchs struggles came with Cousart,
King's leading scorer, picking up his fourth foul with just over 14
minutes remaining in the game. Cousart failed to score in the first half
for the first time all season as he was whistled for three first-half
fouls. Scalzo, the Monarchs' second-leading scorer picked up his fourth
foul with 7:18 left.
The loss was a bitter one for King's which
suffered its second defeat to a last-place Freedom Conference opponent
in the past three weeks. The Monarchs dropped a 66-63 loss at Delaware
Valley on January 27.
Kreseg topped Wilkes with 26 points while Dan
Asdams added nine. Ryan Nenstiel posted a team-high 11 for King's while
Sobocinski, Scalzo, Soboleski, and Cousart finished with eight points
each.
Even with the loss, the Monarchs will have an
opportunity to wrap up the top-seed in the Freedom Conference playoffs
when King's wraps up the regular-season Saturday with a 3:00 p.m. home
game against FDU-Florham.
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