Division I Lafayette College used torrid long-range shooting to build a 58-42 half-time lead en route to a 89-80 victory over visiting King’s College Wednesday at the Kirby Sports Center in Easton.
With the win, Lafayette improved to 5-7 while King’s slipped to 4-5.
Lafayette came out of the gates on fire from long-range in the first half as the Leopards made 21 field goals in the opening stanza, including 13-of-21 (65.0 percent) from three-point range.
Lafayette would build an early 18-10 lead on a trey by Bilal Abdullah with 13:22 on the clock, but the Monarchs answered with back-to-back three-pointers from Bob Nenstiel to cut the lead to 18-16 with 11:11 left in the half. Andrew Brown would connect on another three-pointer for Lafayette, but a pair of Monarch buckets by Vince Sobocinski and John Soboleski drew King’s to within 21-20 with 10:18 left. Brown would follow with another trey, but Nenstiel made a pair of foul shots to bring King’s within 24-22 with 9:25 on the clock.
From there Lafayette would outscore King’s 15-10 by making five straight three-pointers to build a 39-32 advantage with 4:44 remaining in the half. After a Monarch turnover, the Leopards would go on an 8-3 spurt to take a 49-35 lead on a pair of foul shots by Paul Cummins with 2:07 on the clock. Lafayette would close out the half with a three-pointer by Cummins with 0:31 on the clock, than added a steal and lay-up from Ted Detmer at the 0:31 mark. Jim Welsh netted a three-pointer for King’s with 0:03 left to bring the Monarchs to within 58-42 at the break.
The Leopards ended the half shooting 60.0 (21-35) from the floor compared to 45.5 (15-33) for King’s. Abdullah led all scorers with 15 points, including four treys at the break while Brown and Detmer added 12 and 11 respectively. Nenstiel and Soboleski netted 11 first-half points each for King’s.
In the second half, Lafayette continued to control play as Brown added another three, Everest Schmidt netted five straight points, while Matt Betley added four consecutive points as three Leopards lead grew to 70-50 with 14:10 left in the contest. Detmer would follow with consecutive baskets while Cummins netted a three-pointer to giver the Leopards a 74-50 lead with 12:31 remaining. Welsh would connect on a three-pointer for King’s before Jamie Cousart added a basket, Soboleski made one-of-two foul shots, and Sobocinski hit a three-pointer to cut the lead to 77-59 with 10:35 left.
King’s would counter with a 9-4 surge to cut the lead to 82-68 on a traditional three-point play from Scalzo and a basket by Kofi Dwebeng with 7:41 on the clock. Nenstiel would then make one of two free throws to bring the Monarchs to within 85-72 with 3:45 left. Welsh would add a lay-up to cut the lead to 85-74 and Scalzo made one-of-two foul shots with to cut the gap to 85-75 with 2:35 on the clock. After a Lafayette basket Welsh hit a three-pointer while Soboleski added a bucket underneath to bring King’s to within 87-80 with 1:12 left. The Monarchs, would come no closer however as Marcus Harley made a pair of foul shots with 0:35 left to seal the victory.
Brown finished with 20 points, while making 6-of-8 three-pointers. Detmer and Betley added 17 each while Abdullah tallied 15.
Soboleski led King’s with 18 points and nine rebounds while Welsh followed with 14 and four boards. Scalzo and Nenstiel contributed 13 and 12 respectively.
King’s will return to action Friday and Saturday with the Ramada Inn/Monarch Classic. Wilkes will face Ursinus Friday at 6:00 p.m. while King’s plays Misericordia at 8:00 p.m. On Saturday, Wilkes and Misericordia square off at 1:00 p.m. while King’s and Ursinus will meet at 3:00 p.m.