JANUARY 27, 2016
KING'S MEN'S HOOPS FALL TO WILKES 80-70
WILKES-BARRE, PA --- Alec Wizar scored a game high 27 points to lead the visiting Wilkes University men's basketball team to a 80-70 victory over King's College on Wednesday night at Scandlon Gymnasium in Wilkes-Barre.
The Colonels improve to 8-10 overall and 3-4 in the Middle Atantic Conference Freedom while the Monarchs fall to 8-10 and 2-5 in the conference.
Wilkes jumped out to a 12-3 lead after a three-pointer by Marcus Robinson with 13:35 left in the first half. A three-pointer by Nate Oliver, a jumper by Connor Hughes and then a free throw from Jake Barber cut the Colonel lead to three points. After a bucket by Wilkes King's went on a 10-0 run to take their largest lead of the game at 19-14 with 7:19 left in the half. Tom Heston had six points and Barber had four for the Monarchs during the run. The Colonels responded with a 23-9 run the rest of the half to take a 37-28 lead.
In the second half Wilkes came out strong and were able to extend the lead to 19 points after a Clay Basalyga three brought the score to 63-44 with 9:00 minutes left in the game. King's was able to get into the bonus early in the half and used foul shooting to get within 10 points with 2:00 left but were not able to get any closer.
Tom Heston led the Monarchs with 18 points including 12 from the free throw line. Jake Barber had 17 points and Dan Rutecki scored 13. Connor Hughes added nine.
The Monarchs shot 38.2 (21-55) percent from the field and were able to get to the line 34 times making 23 good for 67.6 percent. King's only committed a season-low six turnovers while forcing 19.
Wilkes was led by Wizar with 27 points and seven rebounds while Zachary Brunner nearly missed a double-double with 17 points and nine rebounds. Marcus Robinson added 13 points. The Colonels outrebounded the Monarchs 50-22 including 13 on the offensive end which led to 12 second chance points.
The Colonels shot 51.9 (27-52) percent from the field, 42.1 (8-19) from three-point range, and 64.3 (18-28) from the foul line.
King's will be back in action on Saturday when they start the second cycle of conference play with a 3:00 p.m. game against DeSales University in Scandlon Gymnasium. The Monarchs fell to DeSales 72-70 back on January 13th after Aaron Burton hit a floater from five feet out with three seconds left.