MARCH 8, 2002
BOB ZIADIE
KING'S WOMEN DEFEAT SCRANTON 72-57 TO ADVANCE TO
"ELITE EIGHT"
SALISBURY, MD -- Nikki Kingston and Jen Wozniak
scored 19 points apiece to lead
the King's College womenıs basketball team to a 72-57 victory over
arch-rival University of Scranton to
advance to the NCAA Atlantic/Mid-Atlantic
Sectional championship game Friday at Salisbury University,
Salisbury, MD.
With the win, King's improved to 25-3 and set a new
school-record for victories
while advancing to the "Elite Eight" for the first time in
school history. Scranton,
meanwhile, ended its season with a 25-5 mark. The teams played
three times during the season with the Lady Monarchs capturing all
three contests.
Scranton opened the game with a 10-5 run as Eileen
Webster led the way with four
points. King's would counter with a 11-0 spurt on a pair of baskets by
Tiffini Varrasse and a three-pointer by
Jennie Orelli to take a 16-10 lead with
11:21 left in the half. After Judy Flounders canned a three-pointer to
bring the Lady Royals to within 16-13,
King's extended the margin to 20-13 on
consecutive baskets by Nikki
Kingston.
After Scranton countered with back-to-back
baskets by Gillian McGovern and Webster with 8:32 left, King's
exploded to close out the half with a
22-3 run. Jen Wozniak
scored three straight baskets before a bucket by Fran Monte put
the Lady Monarchs ahead 32-17 with 4:49
left. After AnneMarie Russo converted
a traditional three-point play for Scranton with 4:38 on the
clock, the
Lady Monarchs would score the next 10 points to end the half.
Kingston knocked
down a pair of foul shots before Varrasse scored six straight points
to put King's ahead 40-20 with 1:36
left. The Lady Monarchs then closed out the
scoring when Kristin Yeasted hit a driving lay-up at the buzzer to give
King's a 42-20 lead at the break.
Kingston scored 11 points to pace King's in the
first half while Varrasse added
10 as the Lady Monarchs converted 51.4 (19-37) percent of their shots.
Webster led the Lady Royals with six
while Russo added five as Scranton shot just
31.0 (9-29) from the field.
In the second half, the teams would trade baskets as
King's maintained a near
20-point lead throughout majority of
final stanza. Scranton drew within 18 points
on several occasions, but the Lady Monarchs would consistently answer
with baskets of their own. With King's
ahead 57-36 with 10:46 left, Wozniak scored
the next three baskets for the Lady Monarchs to push the score to 61-41
with 8:47 left.
After Crawford scored for the Lady Royals,
Monte and Kingston hit back-to-back
baskets to put the Lady Monarchs ahead 65-43 with 6:45 left.
The teams traded baskets, on the next
three possessions, before Wozniak made one-of-two
foul shots and Varrasse canned a short jumper to extend the lead
to 70-47 with 5:59 left to put the game
away for the Lady Monarchs.
Varrasse added 15 points five assists, and five
steals for King's while Kingston
added thee assists and six steals while puling down a team-high
eight rebounds. Monte netted eight point
with five rebounds while Carissa Ryan
chipped in with four points and a team-high seven assists. Kingıs shot
48.4 (31-64) percent for the game and
used a half-court trapping defense to force
27 Scranton turnovers.
Dougherty had 13 points for Scranton while Webster
added 10 points and eight rebounds.
Russo netted eight points and a team-high 10 rebounds.
For King's, the win was sweet
redemption as the Lady Monarchs won the MAC Freedom
Conference regular season championship but were upset by fourth-seeded
Delaware Valley in the semi-finals f the conference tournament.
Second-seeded Scranton went
on to win the title and gained the NCAA automatic berth while
the Lady Monarchs settled for an
at-large bid.
"I am very proud of the way our team played
tonight, especially on the defensive
end," King's ninth-year head Bryan Whitten stated. "That might
have been the best first half of
basketball we have played since I have been here.
To hold a team like Scranton to 20 points in the first half really
demonstrated the type of effort and
intensity we had to night. It was a real team
effort and our offense really fed off our defense. After we lost to
Delaware Valley in the conference
semi-finals, we have really stressed how important
it is to get off to a good start. We were able to do that in our
last game against Alvernia with a 14-0
start and again tonight."
King's will face Marymount University in the
sectional final Saturday at 6:00
p.m. The Saints routed host Salisbury
79-52 to advance to the championship game.
The winner will gain a berth in the NCAA Division III "Final
Four". Friday and
Saturday at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, Terre Haute,
IN.
BOX
SCORE
