DECEMBER 29, 2017

LADY MONARCHS DROP 69-50 DECISION TO LANDMARK CONFERENCE FAVORITE

WASHINGTON, D.C. --- The King's College women's basketball team dropped their opening game of the Jamie Lynn Roberts Fairfield Inn Holiday Tournament to host The Catholic University of America 69-50 on Friday afternoon at the DuFour Center in the nation's capital.

King's record falls to 5-4 with the loss while Catholic, the preseason favorite to win the Landmark Conference, improves to 8-2.

The Lady Monarchs were facing their third straight 2017 NCAA Tournament qualifier and built an early 7-3 lead against the Cardinals 3:13 into the game. However, Catholic responded with a 13-2 run to take a 19-9 lead with two minutes remaining in the opening quarter. The teams traded buckets as the Cardinals took a 21-11 lead into the second quarter of play.

King's offensive struggles continued in the second quarter as the Cardinals outscored King's 19-3 in the quarter to take a 40-14 lead into halftime. Catholic shot a remarkable 47.1 (16-34) percent in the first half while the Lady Monarchs shot just 20.0 (4-20) percent from the field and were unable to make a field goal in the second quarter.  Catholic's highly-ranked defense forced the Monarchs to commit 20 first-half turnovers while recording 10 steals and limiting the Monarchs to 14 points.

The Monarch offense started to come alive in the second half outscoring the host 36-29 including 20-11 in the fourth quarter. King's shot 37.9 (11-29) percent from the field in the second half, committed just seven turnovers and outrebounded the Cardinals 25-18 in the final two quarters. However, it was not enough as the first half deficit was too much to overcome against a team the caliber of Catholic.

Olivia Hoffman filled the stat sheet for King's and was all over the court recording eight points, eight rebounds, four blocked shots, two steals, and two assists. Rebecca Prociak scored a team-high 10 points and grabbed six rebounds. Alexis Steeber added seven points and five rebounds, Erin Schmidt knocked down a pair of three-pointers for six points, and Mackenzie Yori and Rachael DeTore had five points each.

The Lady Monarchs scored a season-low 50 points on a season-worst 30.6 (15-49) percent shooting from the field against a highly-ranked defense. Catholic entered the matchup ranked 18th in the nation in scoring defense giving up 49.4 points per game and 30th in opponent's field goal percentage. The Monarchs did win the rebounding battle with a season-high 44 compared to 37 for the Cardinals.

Payton Smith led a trio of Cardinals with double-digit points with 15. Briana Bull added 13 points while Sydney Poindexter had 11. The Cardinals finished the game shooting 42.0 (29-69) percent from the field while scoring 29 points off 27 turnovers.

The Lady Monarchs will look to build off the momentum of the second half and finish the 2017 calendar year on a high note when they face Vassar College tomorrow at 1:00 p.m. in the DuFour Center.