NOVEMBER 26, 2016
LADY MONARCHS DEFEATED BY SCRANTON, 89-52
SCRANTON, PA --- The nationally-ranked University of Scranton women's basketball team knocked down 15 three-pointers to defeat King's College 89-52 on Saturday at the John Long Center in Scranton during the first day of the Cross County Challenge.
Scranton, who entered the game ranked third in the nation in the Women's Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) Poll and fifth in the D3hoops.com Poll, improves to 4-0 with the win. The Lady Monarchs fall to 1-3 with the loss.
King's kept the game close in the first quarter not allowing Scranton to gain more than a four point advantage during the first eight minutes of play. Alexis Steeber scored eight of the first 14 points for the Monarchs by beating the Royal defenders off the dribble and getting to the rim where she was able to score on a layup or get fouled and score from the foul line. The Royal led 16-14 before going on a 6-2 run in the last two minutes to take a 22-16 after the first quarter of play.
Scranton continued their run in the second quarter scoring the first 10 points to open up a 16 point advantage with 7:39 left in the half. A jumper by Steeber and a three from Kayla Feairheller cut the deficit down to 11 points at 32-21 but the Royals countered with a 14-0 run to go up by 25 with 53 seconds left in the half. After the Royals knocked down a transition three with 12 seconds left in the half the Monarchs pushed the ball up court and got a layup by Rebecca Prociak right before time expired to bring the score to 49-24 at halftime.
In the second half the Lady Royals scored the first 16 points of the quarter while knocking down four long balls to take a 65-24 lead. Back-to-back treys from Shae Grim and Erin Schmidt cut the lead down to 36 points with 4:05 left in the quarter. Unfortunately for the Monarchs the Royals were able to knock down two more three-pointers to take a 81-37 lead into the fourth quarter.
After shooting 50.0 (9-18) percent from the field in the second quarter and 66.7 (12-18) percent in the third quarter Scranton finally cooled down as the Lady Monarchs held them to just eight points on 10.0 (2-20) percent shooting from the field in the fourth quarter. Meanwhile King's scored 15 points with eight of those points coming from the free throw line.
Alexis Steeber was one point shy of her career high to lead King's with 12 points and five rebounds. Shae Grim scored 11 points while Rebecca Prociak continued her fantastic start to the season with 10 points and six rebounds. Kayla Feairheller added seven points and Olivia Hoffman recorded six points, seven rebounds, and five blocks. Sara Wolbert had six rebounds and four blocks.
The Lady Monarchs were able to get to the line 25 times making 64.0 (16-25) percent of their attempts and shot 30.2 (16-53) percent from the field. As a team King's blocked 10 shots.
The Royals were led by Emily Sheehan with 22 points and Katie O'Reilly with 17. Scranton shot 39.5 (30-76) percent from the field and 41.7 (15-36) percent from beyond-the-arc.
King's will return to Scranton tomorrow to take on Marywood University on the second day of the Cross County Challenge. The game will tip-off at 5:00 p.m. at the John Long Center on the campus of University of Scranton.