NOVEMBER 15, 2017

LADY MONARCHS OPEN SEASON WITH 70-67 VICTORY AT NEUMANN

ASTON, PA --- The King's College women's basketball team outscored host Neumann University 27-16 in the third quarter to defeat the Knights 70-67 in the season-opening game on Wednesday night in Aston.

The game got off to a slow start with neither team able to score in the first minute. The Knights scored the first points of the year 70 seconds in when she recorded a steal in the backcourt and drove in for a layup. The Monarchs scored their first points of the season two possessions later when Olivia Hoffman grabbed an offensive rebound and laid the ball off the glass to tie the game. The score remained the same until Rebecca Prociak gave King's the lead on two made free throws with 6:58 left in the quarter. Prociak gave the Monarchs an 8-4 advantage when she connected on a layup with 4:20 remaining. The Knight cut the lead to one on a bucket and a free throw from Nafisa Saunders.

King's responded when Rachael DeTore found Hoffman under the basket for two points and two possessions later DeTore knocked down a jumper while being fouled. She converted the foul shot to give the Monarchs a 15-9 lead with 1:05 to go in the quarter. The Knights scored back-to-back layups to finish the quarter and cut King's lead to 1513.

Prociak gave King's a 17-13 lead to begin the second when Alexis Steeber found her open under the basket on a perfectly executed inbound play from the baseline. Neumann responded with a 7-2 run capped by a three-pointer from Lauren Legler to take a 20-19 lead with 6:15 left in the half. The Monarchs retook the lead when Erin Schmidt found Prociak open for a layup and then Mackenzie Yori dished out an assist to Steeber with 5:25 remaining. The teams would trade points with five lead changes and three ties over the next five minutes as the Knights took a 33-32 lead after a jumper by Erin Baker with 30 seconds left. King's took a 34-33 lead into the half when Yori drained a jumper on the right wing right before the clock expired off a pass from Hoffman.

The team went back and forth for the first five minutes of the third quarter with the Knights holding a 45-43 lead with 5:34 on the clock. After a couple of missed shots and offensive rebound, Lindsey Dippre knocked down a huge trey from the left side off a pass from Steeber to give King's a 46-45 lead. The Monarchs used the momentum to outscore the Knights 15-4 the rest of the quarter to take a 61-49 lead. Dippre and Steeber led the way for King's during the run as Dippre scored five points and Steeber scored the last four points of the quarter.

Yori started the fourth quarter with a layup to give the Monarchs their largest lead of the game at 14 points.  Neumann responded with a 10-2 run over the next three minutes to cut King's lead down to six at 65-59. Prociak sandwiched a jumper and a layup around two made free throws from the Knights to give King's a 69-61 lead with 5:21 left. Minika Glenn made it a five-point game with 4:39 remaining with a three. Neither team was able to score until Saunders knocked down one of two free throws with 1:45 left in the game. Glenn made it a one-point game with 1:05 left when she scored on a layup.

The Knights had a chance to take the lead after a King's turnover but Hoffman was able to come up with a defensive rebound on a missed layup. On the opposite end of the court, Saunders was able to block a shot from Hoffman and then grabbed the rebound before falling out of bounds. Her attempt to keep the ball in play was intercepted by Dippre with 11 seconds left. Forced to foul Neumann put Yori on the line. Yori knocked down the front end of her two attempts to give the Monarchs a three-point cushion. Neumann called a timeout after grabbing the rebound to set up one final play to attempt to tie the game. However, the Monarchs were able to come away with the victory when a contested three from Lauren Legler banged off the backboard, off the rim, and then back onto the court as time expired.

King's was led by double-doubles from Olivia Hoffman and Rebecca Prociak. Hoffman had 14 points with 12 rebounds, two assists, and two blocked shots. Prociak finished one point shy of her career high with 18 points, 11 rebounds, three steals, and two assists. Alexis Steeber was King's third double-digit scorer with 16 points, six rebounds, and equaled her career high with four assists. Lindsey Dippre scored eight points and Mackenzie Yori had seven in their King's debuts. Rachael DeTore had seven points, three rebounds, and three assists in her return to the court after a year off.

The Lady Monarchs shot 41.5 (27-65) percent from the field including 23.1 (3-13) percent from beyond-the-arc. King's recorded 25 points off 19 Neumann turnovers and did a great job of distributing the ball as they had 17 assists. The Monarchs scored 13 second-chance points off 13 offensive rebounds. The team got to the line 19 times making 13 of their attempts (68.4%) by drawing 20 fouls. Despite the 15 lead changes and eight ties, the Monarchs led for 29:02 minutes compared to Neumann leading for 5:46.

Neumann was led by Saunders with 26 points and six rebounds. Glenn added 17 points and nine rebounds while Legler scored 11 points with three triples. Neumann shot 38.8 (26-67) percent from the field including 23.8 (5-21) percent from long range and 62.5 (10-16) percent from the line. The Knights held a slim 45-43 rebounding advantage.

King's will be back in action on Friday when they face the #19/#13-ranked University of Scranton at 6:00 p.m. in the Cross County Challenge at the Marts Center on the campus of Wilkes University.