FEBRUARY 13, 2016

KING'S WOMEN FALL TO MISERICORDIA IN 2ND HALF COMEBACK

DALLAS --The King's College women's basketball team was unable to make a 16-point halftime lead stand up as the Lady Monarchs dropped a 65-62 decision to host Misericordia University Saturday in Dallas.

With the loss, King's was officially eliminated from Freedom Conference Tournament contention as the Lady Monarchs fell to 11-12 and 4-8 in league play after dropping their fifth straight conference game and seven of their last eight in league play. Misericordia, which was previously eliminated from playoff consideration, improved to 7-16 and 3-9 after sweeping the season series from King's.

The teams played evenly through the first quarter as both squads struggled offensively to the tune of a 10-10 tie. In the second quarter Olivia Hoffman and Kayla Feairheller scored on inside baskets before Erin Schmidt converted a traditional three-point play to put King's ahead 17-10 with 8:26 left in the half. Hoffman then scored inside again to cap a 9-1 King's spurt to push the score to 19-11.

After a Cougar bucket, King's used back-to-back lay-ups from Sara Krupinski and Cayle Spencer and a pair of three-pointers by Feairheller to push the King's lead to 30-13 with 2:44 left in the opening stanza. King's would take a 35-19 lead into the break. The Lady Monarchs outscored Misericordia 25-9 in the second quarter. 

In the third quarter King's held a 41-26 lead with 6:17 remaining after a jumper by Feairheller. But the Cougars got hot and used a 20-6 run to take a 47-46 into the fourth quarter following a three-pointer by Rachel Carmody. 

Later in the final period the Cougars built a 58-53 lead after a jumper by Leanne Forsyth with 5:00 to play. King's cut the lead to 58-56 on a bucket and foul shot by Jennifer Fabian with 4:11 remaining but Justine Seeley countered for Misericordia with an inside basket at the 3:22 mark to push the score to 60-56.

Feairheller later buried a three-pointer to bring King's to within 64-62 with 1:00 to go but Seeley made one-of two free throws with 0:44 left to bring the score to 65-62. The Cougars came up with a big defensive stop when Spencer's driving lay-up was blocked with 0:14 on the clock. Misericordia was then able to run out the clock to seal the win. The Cougars outscored King's 46-27 over the game's final 20 minutes of play.

Fabian led King's with 16 points and three rebounds while Feairheller added 15 points and three boards. Tara Zdancewicz finished with 12 points and eight rebounds while Hoffman tallied eight points, 11 rebounds, and three blocked shots to tie King's all-time single-season record of 86 blocks.

Carmody paced Misericordia with 16 points and 11 rebounds while Seeley and Japriya Carroll added 10 points each.

King's will return to the court Tuesday when the Lady Monarchs host their final home game of the season with a 6:00 p.m. matchup against Delaware Valley University in Scandlon Gym.