MARCH 2, 2007
KING'S WOMEN DEFEAT W&J TO REACH ECAC CHAMPIONSHIP
GAME
READING -- Senior forward Casey Heitman scored a
career-high 18 points and junior guard Jenna Palumbo added 16 to lead
the King's College women's basketball team to a 68-62 victory over
Washington & Jefferson College in the semi-final round of the ECAC
Southern Region Championships Friday at Albright College, reading.
With the win, King's improved to 21-8 on the year and will face Moravian
College in the championship game Saturday at 2:00 p.m. at Albright.
Moravian (18-11) advanced with a 71-60 win over Albright in the other
semi-final pairing.
The first half was a back-and-forth affair that
featured nine lead changes and five tied scores as Washington and
Jefferson took a 35-33 lead into the break.
In the second half, W&J opened up with a 8-0 run to take a 43-33 lead on
a pair of foul shots by Emily Hayes with 17:24 remaining.
But King's would battle back and cut the lead to 45-42 on a
three-pointer by Palumbo with 13:40 left. After the Presidents' Kaliegh
Bangor answered with a try of her own to push the score to 48-42, King's
again responded with a 8-1 surge to take a 50-49 lead on a bucket down
low from Brittany Atzert with 9:28 on the clock.
The teams would trade leads seven times over the
next 6:10 as Washington and Jefferson held a 61-60 lead with 3:18
remaining. King's would use a pair of foul shots by Lauren Kendra to
take a 62-61 lead with 2:31 remaining, then followed up with a lay-up by
Palumbo to extend the advantage to 64-61 with 1:09 on the clock. After a
W&J miss, Heitman was fouled and made one-of-two free throws to give
King's a 65-61 lead with 0:28 left.
After Maggie Gibson made two fouls shots for the Presidents with 0:11
left, Heitman was again fouled and closed out the game with a pair of
charity tosses with 0:04 remaining to seal the victory.
Heitman was 5-of-6 from the field, including 3-of-4 from three-point
range while snaring eight rebounds. Palumbo connected on two
three-pointers, upping her school-record season total to 98, while
making 8-of-8 foul shots. Atzert netted nine points while Andrea
Hochstuhl added eight. Kendra chipped in with seven points, seven
assists, and five rebounds.
Hays led the Presidents with 21 points while Bangor added 14.
