FEBRUARY 1, 2017
LADY MONARCHS FALL TO AGGIES 56-43
WILKES-BARRE, PA --- The visiting Delaware Valley University women's basketball team outscored King's College 33-20 in the second half to come away with a 56-43 victory on Wednesday night at McGrane Gymnasium in Wilkes-Barre.
King's falls to 4-15 overall on the season and 2-7 in conference play while the Aggies improve to 9-11 overall and 5-4 in Middle Atlantic Conference Freedom play.
Delaware Valley scored the first four points of the game but the Lady Monarchs fired right back with a layup from Olivia Hoffman, a pull up jumper in the paint from Kayla Feairheller, and a three-pointer from Erin Schmidt to take a 7-4 lead with 4:25 left in the quarter. The Aggies scored the next four points to retake the lead before Schmidt knocked down her second three of the game to give the Monarchs back the lead. Ashley Smink tied the game up at 12 with a jumper right before the quarter ended.
After an Aggie basket to begin the second quarter the Monarchs found Hoffman underneath the basket twice to take a 16-14 lead with 6:57 remaining in the half. After Delaware Valley tied the game up at 16 Kasey Seitz knocked down a three off an assist from Kayla Dillinger to give King's a three-point advantage. The Monarchs were able to build their lead up to five points with 1:16 left in the half after two made free throws from Feairheller but the Aggies ended the half on a 5-0 run to tie the game at 23.
The Aggies came out of the locker room with a strong start to the second half outscoring the Monarchs 9-2 in the first four minutes. Shae Grim ended the run with a driving layup followed by knocking down one of two free throws. Schmidt cut the deficit down to one after drilling another three-pointer but Delaware Valley responded with a three from Sam Foy, one of two free throws from Monika Smallwood, and then back-to-back jumpers from Foy to build a nine-point lead at 40-31 with 46 seconds left in the quarter. After a Kayla Dillinger three-pointer, the Aggies knocked down one of two free throws to take a 41-34 into the fourth quarter.
The Monarchs began the quarter with a three-pointer from Seitz but the Aggies went on a 12-0 run to take a 53-37 lead with 3:11 remaining in the game. The Monarchs struggled to hold on to the ball committing six turnovers during the run leading to six of the Aggies points. Schmidt and Dillinger knocked down threes to close out the scoring for the Monarchs.
Erin Schmidt lead King's with a career-high 12 points on four-of-five shooting from beyond-the-arc. Olivia Hoffman had six points and 10 rebounds while Kasey Seitz and Kayla Dillinger scored six points each. The Lady Monarchs did a good job on the boards holding a 38-34 rebounding advantage and for the second straight game did a good job shooting the three against a defense that entered the game ranked in the top-20 in the nation defending it. King's shot 36.4 (8-22) percent on three-pointers against a defense that entered the game ranked 19th in the nation allowing opponents to shoot 24.2 percent from downtown.
The Aggies were led by Danielle Skedzielewski with 17 points and seven rebounds. Sam Foy had 15 points and eight rebounds while Ashley Smink scored nine points and Monika Smallwood recorded nine rebounds.
King's will be back in action on Saturday when they travel down the turnpike to St. Davids where they will face Eastern University at 1:00 p.m. The Eagles used a big-first quarter to defeat the Lady Monarchs 53-46 in the first meeting between the teams this season back on January 7th.