JANUARY 7, 2017
HOFFMAN EQUALS SCHOOL BLOCK MARK IN LOSS TO EASTERN
WILKES-BARRE, PA --- Olivia Hoffman equaled the school record for career blocks but a slow start proved costly for the King's College women's basketball team in a 53-46 loss to Eastern University on Saturday afternoon at McGrane Gymnasium in Wilkes-Barre.
The Eagles improve to 10-3 overall and 1-1 in Middle Atlantic Conference Freedom play while the Monarchs drop to 1-10 overall and 0-2 in conference.
The Lady Monarchs got off to a slow start offensively missing their first seven shots of the game and turning the ball over four times in the first six minutes as Eastern built a 13-0 lead. Kayla Feairheller knocked down a three with 3:53 left in the quarter to give King's their first points of the day and then Rebecca Prociak knocked down one of two free throws to cut the Eagles advantage to 13-4. Eastern's Emily Lavin scored the next six points of the game to increase the lead before Hoffman knocked down a jumper for King's to set the score at 19-6 in favor of Eastern after the first quarter.
The teams traded baskets for the first five minutes of the second quarter as Eastern built their largest lead of the game at 19 points on two occasions. Erin Schmidt knocked down back-to-back three-pointers and Feairheller putback an offensive rebound to cut the lead to 11 points at 27-16 with 2:40 left in the half. Shae Grim scored the final five points of the half for King's around two Eastern layups to cut the deficit to 31-21 at halftime.
Eastern came out of the locker room hot with back-to-back threes to take a 37-23 lead but the Monarchs responded with a 7-0 run behind five points from Hoffman and two from Prociak. The Eagles were able to increase the lead back up to 10 points after a jumper from Taylor Price with 1:34 left in the quarter. After a made free throw by Prociak and a jumper by Feairheller, the Eagles ended the third with a layup from Price to take a 43-34 lead into the fourth quarter.
Feairheller opened the final quarter with a three-pointer and Prociak knocked down one of two free throws to cut the lead down to five points with 8:47 remaining. The Eagles scored the next five points over the next three minutes to build the lead back up to 10 points at 48-38 with 5:34 left. The Monarchs got three points from Hoffman on a jumper and free throw and a jumper from Feairheller with 2:48 left to bring to lead back down to five points at 48-43 but that was as close as they would get as Eastern was able to close out the game at the free throw line.
The Lady Monarchs outscored the Eagles in three of the four quarters and held a 44-39 rebound advantage. After shooting a mere 18.2 (2-11) percent in the first quarter King's finished the game shooting 29.8 (17-57) percent including 41.7 (5-12) percent in the third quarter.
Kayla Feairheller just missed a double-double with 14 points, a season-high nine rebounds, and a career-high six assists. She now has 996 career points and is just four points away from becoming the 21st player in program history to reach 1,000 career points. Olivia Hoffman had 12 points, seven rebounds, and four blocks to equal the school record for career blocks with 207. Shae Grim had six points and a season-high eight rebounds. The Lady Monarchs blocked eight shots as a team as Alexis Steeber had two and Erin Schmidt and Feairheller had one each.
The Eagles were led by 20 points and 10 rebounds by Taylor Price. Emily Lavin had 14 points, seven rebounds, and six blocks while Regie Robinson scored nine points.
King's will have little rest as they will be back in action on Monday night when they host Ramapo College at McGrane Gymnasium in their final home non-conference game of the year at 6:00 p.m.