NOVEMBER 20, 2016
HOFFMAN BUZZER BEATER GIVES KING'S 57-56 VICTORY AT FRANKLIN AND MARSHALL
LANCASTER, PA --- Olivia Hoffman beat the buzzer with a jumper on the right wing to give the King's College women's basketball team a thrilling come-from-behind 57-56 victory over host Franklin and Marshall College on the second day of the Terry Greene Tip-Off Classic in Lancaster.
The Lady Monarchs rallied from being down 15 points midway through the third quarter to win their first game of the year and give Coach Hadzimichalis a very memorable first career win as a head coach. King's improved their record to 1-2 while the Diplomats fall to 0-2 on the season.
King's won the opening tip and Cayle Spencer found Alexis Steeber in the post for a layup to give the Monarchs a early 2-0 lead. The Diplomats scored twice to take a 4-2 lead before Kayla Feairheller knocked down a three to retake the lead. The teams traded baskets the rest of the quarter with neither team able to gain more than a one-point advantage. Sara Wolbert put back an offensive rebound to give King's a 13-12 lead after the first quarter.
Franklin and Marshall came out strong in the second quarter outscoring the Monarchs 22-11 to take a 34-24 halftime lead. The Diplomats scored the first eight points of the quarter as the Monarchs had trouble finishing offensively. Feairheller ended the run for the Diplomats with a beautiful driving layup with 5:32 left in the half. A three-pointer by Haley Pilone gave Franklin and Marshall a nine point lead with 3:37 left. The Diplomats were able to extend their lead to 12 with 17 seconds left but Kayla Dillinger grabbed an offensive rebound and gave the Lady Monarchs their first buzzer beater of the day when her put back went through the net just as time expired in the half.
The Monarchs opened the second half with Hoffman scoring on a wonderful post move in the paint. However a three-pointer by Lindsey Powers and then three made free throws by Sarah Haddon gave the Diplomats a 40-26 lead with 7:40 left in the quarter. Haddon would give Franklin and Marshall their biggest lead of the game with a layup with 6:26 left. After Steeber found Shae Grim under the basket for an easy layup the Diplomats converted two free throws to take a 44-29 lead with just over five minutes left in the quarter.
Down by 15 points the Monarchs increased the pressure defensively changing into a full court press. While the Monarchs were not able to cause any turnovers right away with the press the pressure allowed the Diplomats only a short amount of time to run their offense after getting the ball up court which led the many missed shots. King's slowly started to chip into the lead and took advantage of foul trouble for the Diplomats. Rebecca Prociak, Spencer, and Feairheller knocked down five of eight free throw attempts to cut the deficit to 10 points with 1:57 left in the quarter. Wolbert calmly knocked down two more free throws and Feairheller found Dillinger under the basket for an easy layup with 1:05 left in the quarter to bring the score to 46-40. The Diplomats stopped the run with a layup to extend their lead to 48-40 after three quarters of play.
In the fourth quarter the Lady Monarch press started to really give the Diplomats fits as they were able to force turnovers in the backcourt leading to six points in a quarter they outscored Franklin and Marshall 17-8. A layup by Prociak, a free throw by Steeber, and a layup by Hoffman to begin the quarter brought the score to 48-45 with 6:43 left in the game. Unfortunately the Monarchs were unable to keep the Diplomats off the foul line and three free throws by Haddon gave Franklin and Marshall a six point cushion with five minutes remaining.
Spencer knocked down a huge three with 3:52 left and then Grim hit a fantastic driving layup to bring the Monarchs within one at 54-53. The Monarchs then took their first lead since early in the second quarter when Prociak knocked down two free throws with 1:01 left. The Monarchs had a chance to put the game away with 30 seconds left but Hoffman's jumper from inside the paint just rolled off the rim. The Diplomats called a quick timeout to advance the ball up court and Erica Brown's layup with five seconds left was off the mark but Haley Pilone grabbed the offensive rebound and knocked down a jumper from the left baseline with 1.8 seconds left on the clock.
Down one point with 1.8 seconds on the clock Coach Hadzimichalis called a timeout to advance the ball and set up a play. Spencer inbounded the ball in front of the Monarch bench and passed it to Hoffman on the right wing who turned and beat the buzzer with a left-handed jumphook giving the Monarchs the victory.
Rebecca Prociak recorded her first career double-double with a game-high 18 points and 13 rebounds. She was a force inside the paint scoring on five of her nine shots and knocking down eight of her 11 free throws. Prociak was also named to the All-Tournament Team. Kayla Feairheller added 10 points, four rebounds, and four steals while Cayle Spencer recorded six points, four rebounds, and three assists. Olivia Hoffman, who played just 16 minutes due to foul trouble, had six points and three blocks while Sara Wolbert contributed six points and four rebounds. Kayla Dillinger had four points, four rebounds, and two steals while Shae Grim had four points and three rebounds.
The Monarchs shot 35.1 (20-57) percent from the field and got to the free throw line 25 times knocking down 15 for 60.0 percent. King's held a 50-39 rebounding advantage, outscored the Diplomats in the paint 36-20, had 13 points off turnovers compared to 12 for Franklin and Marshall, and their bench outscored the Diplomats 32-5.
The Diplomats were led by Sarah Haddon with 15 points and 12 rebounds. Haley Pilone scored 16 points and Erica Brown added 14 points and seven rebounds.
King's will now be off for the Thanksgiving break and return to the court next Saturday when they travel up I-81 to face the University of Scranton at 5:00 p.m. in the John Long Center on the first night of the Cross County Challenge. The Lady Royals entered the season ranked fifth in the nation in the D3Hoops.com preseason Poll and third in the WBCA Coaches preseason Poll. The Lady Monarchs will then face Marywood University on Sunday at 5:00 p.m. also at the John Long Center on the campus of University of Scranton.