JANUARY 31, 2007
KING'S WOMEN DROP 78-73 VERDICT TO SCRANTON
(Lady Royals Go 28-of-35 from Charity Stripe)
SCRANTON -- Taryn Mellody and Allison Matt combined
for 54 points and the University of Scranton women's basketball team
made 28-of-35 shots from the foul line to hold off visiting King's
College 78-73 Wednesday in the John Long Center.
With the win, Scranton, ranked fifth nationally in Division III,
improved to 18-2 overall and 9-0 in Freedom Conference play.
King's, which saw its nine-game win streak come to an end, slipped to
14-6 and 6-3.
Scranton would build a 16-11 lead midway through the first half, but the
Lady Monarchs used a 5-0 spurt to knot the score at 16-16 on a lay-up by
Andrea Hochstuhl with 9:03 left on the clock. With the game tied
at 26-26 with 3:43 remaining, Scranton used four straight foul shots
from Mellody to build a 30-26 lead with 2:26 left.
King's would eventually cut the lead to 32-31 on a three-pointer by
Brittany Atzert, but Casey Thran made one-of-two foul shots to put
Scranton on top 33-31 with 0:06 remaining. King's, however, would
take a 34-33 half-time lead when Hochstul banked in a 28 footer at the
buzzer.
In the second half, Scranton would outscore King's 9-6 early on to take
a 44-40 lead. The Lady Monarchs would then receive a major blow
when Hochstuhl picked up her fourth foul and went to the bench. Scranton
would then use a three-pointer by Mellody, a traditional three-point
play by Tiffaney Williams, and short jumper by Thran to push the score
to 52-44 with 13:11 remaining.
Kaitlyn Fiorino score the next three points for King's to cut the lead
to 52-47with 11:58, but Hochstuhl picked up her fifth foul just seven
seconds later to leave the game for good.
Scranton capitalized with a 9-0 run, capped by back-to-back
three-pointers from Melody with 6:55 on the clock. After the teams
traded the next six points, Mellody canned another three-pointer to push
the Scranton lead to 68-56 with 6:01 left.
But King's would not wilt as Kendra score consecutive basket,
followed by back-to-back three-pointers by Andrea Carroll and Jenna
Palumbo as the Lady Monarchs clawed back to within 68-66 with 3:49 on
the clock.
Scranton would score the next four points when Matt made good on a pair
of foul shots and followed with a steal and lay-up to extend the
advantage to 72-66 with 2:42 left. After Heitman made a pair of
foul shots for King's, Matt countered by converting one-of-two for
Scranton to push the score to 73-68 with 2:06 on the clock.
After a King's miss, Kendra came up with a big steal and was fouled
driving to the basket. The Lady Monarch junior would make both attempts
to cut the Scranton lead to 73-70 with 1:57 remaining.
Scranton would get to the charity stripe again when Tiffaney Williams
was fouled and made one-of-two shots to up the Lady Royal lead to 74-70
with 1:36 left. After the teams traded misses, Matt was fouled
with 0:19 left and made both shots to give Scranton a 76-70 lead.
Palumbo would drain a three-pointer for King's with 0:10 left, but
King's would foul Mellody on the inbound pass and the senior
all-American would ice the game by hitting both attempts.
Mellody, who shot just 8-of-20 from the field, more than made up the
difference at the foul line by making 11-of-13 attempts while also
hauling in a team-high 10 rebounds. Matt was just 6-of-15 from the floor
but made 9-of-10 foul shots while posting seven steals. No other
Scranton player reached double figures as Stephanie Remington followed
Mellody and Matt with eight points.
King's was led by Kendra who had 16 points, 12 rebounds, six steals, and
three assists. Palumbo finished with 15 points and five assists while
Fiorino added 14 points but was 5-of-16 from the field. Hochstuhl,
who acme into the game averaging 14.9 points and 10.7 rebounds, was
plagued by foul trouble and finished with 11 points and eight rebounds
in just 22 minutes of action.
King's finished the game by shooting 37.1 (23-62) percent from the field
compared to 34.4 (21-61) percent from the foul line. But Scranton
held a 15-shot advantage from the foul line as King's was 18-of-20 from
the free throw line.
King's will return to action Saturday when the lady Monarchs host
DeSales University at 1:00 p.m. in Scandlon Gymnasium.
