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Terre Haute

Coverage of the women's
NCAA Tournament

2002 season

King's 79, Alvernia 61

WILKES-BARRE, Pa. — King's opened up a double-figure halftime lead and never looked back as they knocked off Alvernia 79-61 in the second round of the NCAA Division III Women's Basketball Championships in the Scandlon Gymnasium on Saturday night.

The victory improves the Lady Monarchs to 24-3 overall and moves them into the Sweet 16, where they will play rival Scranton next Friday at a site and time to be determined. Alvernia, the Pennsylvania Athletic Conference champion, concludes its season with a 24-6 mark.

King's scored the first 14 points of the contest to assume control early. The Lady Monarchs got on the board at the 19:05 mark on a layup by Carissa Ryan. Nikki Kingston hit a pair of free throws to extend the lead to 4-0. Kingston then hit back-to-back jumpers to push the lead to 8-0 with 16:26 left in the half.

Both teams then went scoreless for over two minutes before a Wozniak bucket inside gave King's a 10-0 lead with 14:20 left before intermission. Wozniak would also cap the run with another field goal, this time off a Kingston assist, to make it 14-0 with 12:57 left in the period.

Alvernia would get to within 16-7 on a traditional three-point play by Trish O'Gurek with 11:26 remaining in the first half. But, King's would answer with five consecutive points to regain a double-digit lead they would maintain throughout the remainder of the first half. Jennie Orelli hit two free throws and Kingston connected for a three-point play during the run. King's would eventually head into the locker room at halftime with a 42-30 advantage.

The Crusaders would score the first four points of the second half to cut the lead to single digits, 42-34. Kacie Androsko scored in the paint and Jen Sawyer got a fast break basket as Alvernia got as close as they would get during the remainder of the contest.

King's immediately answered with nine straight tallies to push the lead back to double-figures for good, 51-34, with 14:49 to play. Kingston hit a jumper and Carissa Ryan converted a field goal to make it 46-34. Tiffini Varrasse then canned a 3-point field goal, and followed with a driving hoop to end the spurt.

The closest Alvernia would come the rest of the way was 12 points, that coming at the 10:33 mark on a Tanisha Gidden's field goal that made it 55-43. The Lady Monarchs then rattled off eight consecutive points to forge in front 63-43, and dash any hopes of a Crusader comeback. Jen Wozniak scored five points during the spurt, while Varrasse added another 3-pointer for King's.

King's placed four players in double-figures as 11 players got in on the scoring act. Wozniak had 16 points and seven rebounds, while Kingston added 16 points as well. Varrasse had 15 tallies and four assists, and Ryan chipped in with ten points.

Alvernia was led by Giddens, who had 19 points and 12 rebounds. Sawyer was next on the Crusaders' scoring list with 13 points.

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