Box Score
FEBRUARY 20, 2013

KING'S WOMEN DOWN DESALES 80-70 TO REACH FREEDOM TITLE GAME FOR SECOND STRAIGHT SEASON

WILKES-BARRE — Katlin Michaels, Jen Fabian, and Celia Rader combined for 63 points and the King's College women's basketball team made a 10-point  halftime lead stand up as the host Monarchs posted a 80-70 victory over DeSales University in the semi-final round of the Freedom Conference Tournament Wednesday in Scandlon Gymnasium.

King's, which entered the matchup as the second seed, improved to 21-5 on the year while third-seeded DeSales fell to 18-8.  The teams had split their two regular-season games, each winning on their home court. The Lady Monarchs won for the 12th time in 13 games at home, including 12 straight after losing their home opener back on November 26.

With its victory, King's will travel to Madison, NJ on Saturday to face top-seeded FDU-Florham for the Freedom Conference crown. FDU defeated fourth-seeded Eastern 67-52 to reach the title game. The winner will receive an automatic berth into the NCAA Division III National Tournament. The loser will hope for an at-large bid.  King's and FDU split their two regular-season games with each team winning on its own home court.

The Lady Monarchs came out of the gates quickly, opening up a 20-7 lead with 12:26 left in the firsts half thanks to six points from Fabian and a pair of three-pointers by Rader. After the Bulldogs cut the lead to 22-11 on a Faith Gilbert bucket, King's got another three-pointer from Rader to build a 14-point lead, its biggest of the half, at 25-11 with 10:54 on the clock.

DeSales began to chip away and used a 17-5 run to cut the score to 30-28 after a jumper by Alexiah Grant and one-of-two foul shots by Julia Duffy with 4:50 to go.  But King's responded with a 12-4 run of its own on the strength of five points each from Michaels and Rader to take a 42-32 into the break. Rader paced King's over the course of the first 20 minutes of play, registering 17 points on four three-pointers while Michaels tallied nine points and six assists.

In the second half King's maintained a double-digit lead ranging from 10-12 points before a Michaels steal and lay-up gave the Lady Monarchs a 15-point advantage at 62-47 with 10:07 remaining. With the Lady Monarchs holding a 67-56 advantage with 6:34 to play, King's put together a decisive 9-0 run after forcing three critical DeSales turnovers which led to breakaway baskets, giving the Lady Monarchs a 76-56 lead with 4:37 left in the game.

DeSales made a late 12-0 run to close the gap to 76-68 with 0:36 to play, but Fabian made two free throws at the 0:20 mark to seal the victory and advance the Lady Monarchs to the conference finals. 

King's was paced by Michaels with 22 points, seven rebounds, eight assists, and four steals while Fabian followed with 21 points and eight boards. Rader finished with 20 points, five rebounds, and four assists while Lindsay Atchison contributed 12 points and seven rebounds. Molly Dahl chipped in with five points and three boards.

The Lady Monarchs are playing in the Freedom Conference championship game for the second straight season. A year ago King's was the top seed and lost in the title game on its home floor en route to receiving an NCAA at-large berth where the Lady Monarchs eventually advanced to the Sweet 16. On Saturday, King's will hope to reverse its fortune and win the Freedom title on the road. 

As for the Devils, it is just the second time in school history that FDU has reached the Freedom Conference title game, with the first time coming during the 2007-08 season when the Devils fell to DeSales 75-60 in the championship contest.