JANUARY 12, 2002
BOB ZIADIE
KING'S WOMEN COME BACK TO DEFEAT SCRANTON, 61-50
SCRANTON -- The visiting King's College women's basketball
team overcame a 16-point first-half deficit and closed out the game with a
23-6 run to post a remarkable 61-50 comeback victory over arch-rival
University of Scranton Saturday on Wall of Fame Day at the John Long
Center.
King's, ranked fourth nationally in Division III, extended its best start
in school history at 13-0 and are 4-0 in MAC Freedom Conference action.
Scranton, ranked 9th nationally, slipped to 11-3 and 3-1.
Trailing 34-20 at 7:48 of the second half, Kings began to mount its
comeback. The Lady Monarchs strung together a 14-4 run and cut the lead to
38-34 on a Jen Wozniak basket with 13:08 left. After a Scranton
basket, the Lady Monarchs went on a 6-0 spurt to tie the score at 40-40
with 7:45 remaining on a pair of foul shots by Kristin Yeasted. Scranton
then took a 47-44 team on a three-pointer by Kate Pierangeli before the
Lady Monarchs mounted another comeback. A bucket by Jennie Orelli
and a three-point play gave the Lady Monarch their first lead of the day
at 49-47 with 4:06 left. At that point, King's ended the game with a
15-3 run and held the Lady Royals to just one field goal, a three-pointer
by Pierangeli, over the final 4:56.
Carissa Ryan made one of two foul shots before Nikki Kingston went to line
to nail a pair of charity tosses to put King's ahead 52-47 with 2:19 left.
After Kingston drained a jumper, Ryan sank six consecutive foul
shots following Scranton misses to seal the victory.
The Lady Monarchs got off to a poor start, committing numerous turnovers
which led to easy Scranton baskets. The Lady Royals jumped out to a
15-0 lead with 11:45 remaining in the half as the Lady Monarch turned the
ball over 10 times. Gillian McGovern scored five points to key run.
King's finally got the scoreboard at 10:15 when Wozniak scored for
the Lady Monarchs. After Scranton extended the lead up 20-4 on a
three-pointer by Pierangeli at 8:18, King's countered with a 10-0 run.
Fran Monte scored four points before Kingston drained two
consecutive buckets to bring the Lady Monarchs within 22-18 with 3:12 left
in the half. But Scranton answered with a 6-0 run to close out the
half on a three-pointer by Erin Crawford and baskets by Pierangeli and
AnneMarie Russo to take a 29-18 lead into the locker room. In all,
King's committed a whopping 17 turnovers in the first half before settling
down in the second half and staging its comeback.
"We got off to a terrible start but we remained our composure and
just concentrated on one possession at a time and limiting our
turnovers," King's coach Bryan Whitten stated. "We settled down
and played better defense and became more patient on offense and that
allowed us to chip away at them. We got some great play off the bench from
several people and this win is a credit to heart of our team. Any
time you beat a team the quality of Scranton, you have to be pleased. I am
certainly not happy with the way we started but I am very pleased with the
way we responded to an adverse situation. We could have easily quit but
that is not the mold of this team."
Kingston led King's with 17 points while Ryan and Wozniak added 11 and 10
respectively. The Lady Monarchs also made 23-of-27 shots from the
foul line compared to just 7-of-16 for the Lady Royals. Pierangeli paced
Scranton with 22 points and was the only Lady Royal player to reach double
figures.
It marked the fifth Kingšs victory over Scranton in the last eight
meetings between the teams.
King's will return to action Wednesday when the Lady Monarchs travel to
Williamsport to face Lycoming at 6:00 p.m.
BOX
SCORE
