NOVEMBER 29, 2016

BAD FIRST HALF SINKS LADY MONARCHS AGAINST SUSQUEHANNA

SELINSGROVE -- The Host Susquehanna University women's basketball team used a 26-3 run in the first half to power its way to a 73-49 victory over visiting King's College in a non-conference matchup Tuesday night in Selinsgrove.

With the win, Susquehanna improved to 4-1 while King's slipped to 1-5.

With King's trailing 4-3 early in the game, Susquehanna used a 9-0 surge to forge ahead 13-3 with 3:21 left in the first quarter after a Nicole Gault lay-up. 

After King's Rebecca Prociak made one-of-two free throws to bring the score to 13-4 at the 3:21 mark, the River Hawks closed out the quarter with a 7-0 spurt to build a 20-4 lead heading into the second quarter. 

Susquehanna would continue to execute, starting the period out with a 8-0 run to stretch the lead to 28-4 with 4:23 remaining in the first half after a driving lay-up by Lexi Biggs-Garcia. King's ended a 9:28 scoreless drought when Alexis Steeber scored inside to bring the score to 28-6 with 3:58 on the clock.

After Susquehanna's Rachel Sweger hit a three-pointer to push the score to 31-6, Olivia Hoffman scored inside and Kayla Feairheller canned a three-pointer to bring the score to 33-11 with 1:39 left. After a Susquehanna bucket, Rebecca Prociak hit a short jumper to set the half-time score at 36-13.

In the third quarter, Steeber drained a three-pointer to cut the deficit to 36-16 with 8:28 left in the period. Susquehanna built its biggest lead of the game (26 pts) with 6:46 left in the third frame after an Angie Schedler bucket pushed the lead to 44-18.

The Lady Monarchs continued to fight and trimmed the score to 63-45 after Erin Schmidt converted a three-pointer and Sara Wolbert scored an inside bucket with 5:38 left in the contest. King's would eventually close to within 67-49 after a bucket by Prociak with 2:06 to play but King's would come no closer.

Despite trailing 34-13 at the half, King's played the River Hawks virtually even in the second half, coming short 39-36 over the game's final 20 minutes while outscoring Susquehanna 18-17 in the fourth quarter.

Prociak led King's with 13 points and four rebounds while Steeber followed with 11 points and seven boards.  Schmidt posted nine points and four rebounds while Hoffman tallied six points and four boards.

Schedler led Susquehanna with 25 points with five three-pointers while Janine Conway had 15 points off the bench.

King's shot 30.0 (18-of-60 for the game but especially struggled at the foul line, making just 38.9 (7-of-18) percent and committed 21 turnovers. Susquehanna shot 40.8 (29-71) percent for the game and had just 11 turnovers.

King's returns to the court Thursday with a 7:00 p.m. away game at Rutgers-Camden University