JANUARY 30, 2016

KING'S MEN'S CAGERS SEES COMEBACK FALL SHORT IN 88-81 LOSS TO DESALES

WILKES-BARRE — Junior guard Brian Laird came off the bench to score a game-high 29 points and the DeSales University held off a King's College second-half comeback effort as the visiting Bulldogs posted an 89-81 victory Saturday in Scandlon Gymnasium.

With the win DeSales improved to 14-5 and 6-2 in Freedom Conference play. King's, meanwhile, slipped to 7-11 and 2-6 in conference games after its third straight league defeat. With a third consecutive home loss in conference play, King's now stands in seventh place out of eight Freedom Conference teams with six regular-season games remaining.

King's opened the game with a 6-0 lead and would maintain the advantage until 4:30 remained in the first half when Kuity Slanger converted a traditional three-point play to give the Bulldogs a 30-29 advantage. DeSales scored 13 of the final 17 points of the first half to take a 43-33 lead into the halftime break.

In the final stanza DeSales started strong with a 10-4 spurt to extend the lead to 53-37 with 15:56 left in the contest.  The Monarchs battled back and cut the lead to 64-56 with 9:26 to go after five points from Chris Fazzini sandwiched around a pair of free throws by Dan Rutecki. But DeSales countered with a three-pointer from Cody Deal to push the score to 67-56 with 9:06 remaining. King's cut the score to 69-63 after a Fazzini lay-up but Laird drained a mid-range jumper and Slanger scored on a slashing lay-up to stretch the lead to 73-63 with 5:58 on the clock.

King's chipped away with a 13-6 run and whittled the lead down to 79-76 with 1:46 left after a Connor Hughes lay-up and a three-pointer from Jake Barber. But DeSales countered with a huge three-pointer by Deal and a pair of Laird foul shots with 0:29 on the clock to up the lead to 84-76.

After a King's three-pointer by Rutecki cut the score to 84-79 with 0:22 to play, the Monarchs were forced to foul and put Ryan Callahan on the line. The 6-foo-8 center made both charity tosses to give DeSales a 86-79 lead with 0:21 left. King's would get a driving lay-up from Fazzini with 0:10 left to trim the lead to 86-81 but the Monarchs again fouled and Laird sealed the win by making both foul shots for his 28th and 29th points of the game.

DeSales scorched the nets all day, shooting 57.1 (32-56) percent from the floor, including an outstanding 57.9 (11-19) percent from three-point range.  The Bulldogs were also 13-of-16 from the foul line. Laird was 10-of-12 from the floor and made 5-of-7 shots from three-point range. Deal added 14 points and was 3-of-6 from three-point range while S;anger added 12 points. Connor James chipped in with 11 points off the bench.

King's shot well, making 49.2 (30-61) percent from the field but were just 6-of-18 from three-point range. The Monarchs also made 71.4 (15-21) percent from the foul line.  Rutecki topped King's with 25 points and seven rebounds while Fazzini followed with 23 points and eight boards.  Tom Heston added 11 points, six rebounds, and five assists while Connor Hughes tallied 10 points and four rebounds.

King's will next return to action on Wednesday with an 8:00 p.m. matchup with FDU-Florham in Madison, N.J.