JANUARY 18, 2003
BOB ZIADIE
KING'S HANDS SCRANTON ITS FIRST LOSS TO GAIN
FOURTH STRAIGHT WIN OVER LADY ROYALS
(Whitten becomes King's all-time winningest
coach)
WILKES-BARRE -- Jen Wozniak scored a game-high 20
points and the King's College women's basketball received key scoring
contributions from a pair of unlikely sources as the 12th ranked Lady
Monarchs upended third-ranked Scranton 72-62 Saturday in Scandlon
Gymnasium.
King's posted its fourth straight win over Scranton
as well as its fifth in the last six meetings. In the process, King's 10th
year mentor Bryan Whitten became the Lady Monarchs all-time winningest
coach.
In the first half, King's trailed 7-5 but went on a
15-4 spurt keyed by Wozniak. The Lady Monarch senior forward scored three
straight buckets to give King's a 11-7 lead. After a pair of foul shout by
all-American guard Nikki Kingston, Wozniak followed with two more baskets
before Ryan drained a three-pointer to give King's a 20-11 lead with 8:18
remaining in the opening stanza.
Scranton would whittle away at the lead and closed
to within 22-18 after a pair of foul shots by Tara Gemmell. Wozniak added
two foul shots for King's to extend the lead to 24-18 with 5:04 left in
the half, but the Lady Royals countered with a 8-4 spurt, capped by
consecutive baskets by Gemmel and a pair of free throws from Kate
Piernageli to drawn to within 27-26 with 3:01 remaining. But King's
immediately answered when Jennie Orelli drained a three-pointer as King's
closed the half with a 7-3 push to take a 34-29 lead into the locker room.
The Lady Royals came out of the locker room and
immediately established themselves by going off a 8-1 run and took a 37-35
lead when Gemmel canned a three-pointer with 18:27 on the clock. The game
would remain tight as the teams traded leads five times while tied on
three other occasions. With King's trailing 56-55 with 6:14 left, King's
took the led for good on a short jumper by Tiffini Varrasse with 5:58 left
while a pair of foul shots by Beth Jordan pushed the score to 59-56 with
5:36 on the clock. After Scranton scored on a basket by AnneMarie Ruse,
Wozniak scored inside, then Ryan followed with a crucial three-pointer to
give the Lady Monarchs a 64-58 advantage with 3:19 remaining. Scranton
would close to within 64-60 on a pair of foul shots by Gemmel, but would
end the gamed with a 8-2 run on a three-pointer by Varrasse, a bucket by
Wozniak, and a pair of foul shots by Kingston.
King's appeared to be in trouble midway through the
second half when Kingston left the game with a knee injury at the 10:02
mark with the game tied at 49-49 but the Lady Monarchs remained poised as
Ryan and Jordan provided key offensive contribution. Ryan, who averaged
6.4 points entering the contest, netted 13 while hitting on 4-of-5 three
pointers. Jordan, a 5'11" freshman forward, averaged just 3.4 points
but netted a season-high nine points off the bench.
"That is the one thing about our team, we are
so unselfish and it always seems like we have different players step up
when we need it most," Whitten stated. "But I think the thing
that put us over the top was our defense. I think we did a great job on
the defensive end and made Scranton take some shots they might not
normally be comfortable with. It was a great team effort and a huge win
for us because we could not afford to fall two games behind them
(Scranton) in the conference standings. I am very proud of the preparation
out players put into this game as well as the effort on the floor."
With the win, King's improved to 12-2 overall and
3-1 in the MAC Freedom Conference. Scranton, suffered its first loss of
the year and stands at 13-1 and is also 3-1 in conference play.
The Lady Monarchs were also led by Varrasse with 12
points, five assists, and four steals. Kingston added eight points and
four assists. Gemmel led Scranton with 19 points and seven rebounds, while
Pierangeli and Katie Dougherty added 11 each.
In victory, Whitten became the Lady Monarchs'
all-time victory lead as he improved his mark to 167-88 since taking over
at King's in 1993-94, surpassing the previous mark of predecessor Robin
Cummins who was 166-158 from 1981-1993.
