KING'S WOMEN DROP 78-73 VERDICT TO SCRANTON
(Lady Royals Go 28-of-35 from Charity Stripe)
SCRANTON -- Taryn Mellody and Allison Matt combined for 54 points and the University of Scranton women's basketball team made 28-of-35 shots from the foul line to hold off visiting King's College 78-73 Wednesday in the John Long Center.
With the win, Scranton, ranked fifth nationally in Division III, improved to 18-2 overall and 9-0 in Freedom Conference play. King's, which saw its nine-game win streak come to an end, slipped to 14-6 and 6-3.
Scranton would build a 16-11 lead midway through the first half, but the Lady Monarchs used a 5-0 spurt to knot the score at 16-16 on a lay-up by Andrea Hochstuhl with 9:03 left on the clock. With the game tied at 26-26 with 3:43 remaining, Scranton used four straight foul shots from Mellody to build a 30-26 lead with 2:26 left.
King's would eventually cut the lead to 32-31 on a three-pointer by Brittany Atzert, but Casey Thran made one-of-two foul shots to put Scranton on top 33-31 with 0:06 remaining. King's, however, would take a 34-33 half-time lead when Hochstul banked in a 28 footer at the buzzer.
In the second half, Scranton would outscore King's 9-6 early on to take a 44-40 lead. The Lady Monarchs would then receive a major blow when Hochstuhl picked up her fourth foul and went to the bench. Scranton would then use a three-pointer by Mellody, a traditional three-point play by Tiffaney Williams, and short jumper by Thran to push the score to 52-44 with 13:11 remaining.
Kaitlyn Fiorino score the next three points for King's to cut the lead to 52-47with 11:58, but Hochstuhl picked up her fifth foul just seven seconds later to leave the game for good.
Scranton capitalized with a 9-0 run, capped by back-to-back three-pointers from Melody with 6:55 on the clock. After the teams traded the next six points, Mellody canned another three-pointer to push the Scranton lead to 68-56 with 6:01 left.
But King's would not wilt as Kendra score consecutive basket, followed by back-to-back three-pointers by Andrea Carroll and Jenna Palumbo as the Lady Monarchs clawed back to within 68-66 with 3:49 on the clock.
Scranton would score the next four points when Matt made good on a pair of foul shots and followed with a steal and lay-up to extend the advantage to 72-66 with 2:42 left. After Heitman made a pair of foul shots for King's, Matt countered by converting one-of-two for Scranton to push the score to 73-68 with 2:06 on the clock.
After a King's miss, Kendra came up with a big steal and was fouled driving to the basket. The Lady Monarch junior would make both attempts to cut the Scranton lead to 73-70 with 1:57 remaining.
Scranton would get to the charity stripe again when Tiffaney Williams was fouled and made one-of-two shots to up the Lady Royal lead to 74-70 with 1:36 left. After the teams traded misses, Matt was fouled with 0:19 left and made both shots to give Scranton a 76-70 lead. Palumbo would drain a three-pointer for King's with 0:10 left, but King's would foul Mellody on the inbound pass and the senior all-American would ice the game by hitting both attempts.
Mellody, who shot just 8-of-20 from the field, more than made up the difference at the foul line by making 11-of-13 attempts while also hauling in a team-high 10 rebounds. Matt was just 6-of-15 from the floor but made 9-of-10 foul shots while posting seven steals. No other Scranton player reached double figures as Stephanie Remington followed Mellody and Matt with eight points.
King's was led by Kendra who had 16 points, 12 rebounds, six steals, and three assists. Palumbo finished with 15 points and five assists while Fiorino added 14 points but was 5-of-16 from the field. Hochstuhl, who acme into the game averaging 14.9 points and 10.7 rebounds, was plagued by foul trouble and finished with 11 points and eight rebounds in just 22 minutes of action.
King's finished the game by shooting 37.1 (23-62) percent from the field compared to 34.4 (21-61) percent from the foul line. But Scranton held a 15-shot advantage from the foul line as King's was 18-of-20 from the free throw line.
King's will return to action Saturday when the lady Monarchs host DeSales University at 1:00 p.m. in Scandlon Gymnasium.