JANUARY 3, 2018
KING'S MEN'S BASKETBALL HANDLES DELAWARE VALLEY IN MAC FREEDOM OPENER
WILKES-BARRE -- The King's College men's basketball team shot over 50-percent from the floor and three-point range while forcing 22 Delaware Valley University turnovers as the Monarchs opened MAC Freedom Conference play with a 92-73 victory over visiting Delaware Valley University Wednesday night in Scandlon Gymnasium.
With the win, King's improved to 5-7 while Delaware Valley fell to 10. The victory also moved Monarch head coach J.P. Andrejko to within four wins of the 250-plateau.
King's came out the gates with a 9-2 run after 4:28 of play thanks to four points from Chris Fazzini and buckets each from Joshua Bailey, Noah Tanner, and Connor Callejas.
After an Aggie basket, King's upped the lead to 14-4 on a three-pointer from Callejas and a driving lay-up by Bailey with 14:12 on the clock. Delaware Valley used a 6-0 surge when a Joe Russell lay-up cut the score to 14-10 at the 11:33 mark, but the Monarchs used back-to-back three-pointers by Lenny Radziak and Dan Angelo to push the score to 20-10 lead with 9:30 to go in the half.
King's eventually built its biggest lead of the half when Tanner scored the final five points in a 14-11 Monarch spurt to up the lead to 35-21 with 4:13 remaining in the opening frame. King's would retain a double-digit lead the rest of the way before taking a 45-33 lead into the break.
King's 50 (17-34) percent from the field and 42.9 (8-17) percent from three-point range in the first half.
The Monarchs again started quickly in the second half, using a 9-4 run to forge ahead 54-37 following a Fazzini lay-up with 17:13 to play. The Monarchs continued to control the flow of the game and built a 75-52 lead with 9:41 to play after a three-pointer by Tony Maloney and a driving lay-up by Tanner.
The Monarchs eventually took their biggest lead of the game at 92-68 on a lay-up by Tanner with 2:06 to go.
Tanner led King's with a career-high 20 points with four steals and three assists while Callejas followed with 19 points, including an 8-for-8 performance at the foul line, with a trio of three-pointers and six assists. Fazzini tallied 17 points and three assists. Bailey and Angelo contributed eight points apiece. Lenny Radziak and Tyler Millan chipped in with six points each.
King's finished the game shooting 54.1 (33-61) percent from the floor and 50.0 (11-22) percent from three-point land. The Monarchs also committed just 11 turnovers in the game.