Posting Up - Scoreboard - Top 25 - Features - Notables - Team of the Week - Live Audio

Game story

Schedule and Results

Related Information King's Scranton

Carissa Ryan had just seven 3-pointers for the season before going 4-for-5 against Scranton.

WILKES-BARRE, Pa. — Jen Wozniak scored a game-high 20 points and the King's women received key scoring contributions from a pair of unlikely sources as the 12th ranked Lady Monarchs upended third-ranked Scranton 72-62 on Saturday in Scandlon Gymnasium.

King's posted its fourth consecutive win over Scranton as well as its fifth in the last six meetings. In the process, King's 10th-year mentor Bryan Whitten became the Lady Monarchs all-time winningest coach.

In the first half, King's trailed 7-5 but went on a 15-4 spurt keyed by Wozniak. The Lady Monarch senior forward scored three straight buckets to give King's a 11-7 lead. After a pair of foul shout by all-American guard Nikki Kingston, Wozniak followed with two more baskets before Carissa Ryan drained a 3-pointer to give King's a 20-11 lead with 8:18 remaining in the opening stanza.

Scranton would whittle away at the lead and closed to within 22-18 after a pair of foul shots by Tara Gemmell. Wozniak added two foul shots for King's to extend the lead to 24-18 with 5:04 left in the half, but the Lady Royals countered with a 8-4 spurt, capped by consecutive baskets by Gemmel and a pair of free throws from Kate Piernageli to drawn to 27-26 with 3:01 remaining. But King's immediately answered when Jennie Orelli drained a three-pointer as King's closed the half with a 7-3 push to take a 34-29 lead into the locker room.

The Lady Royals came out of the locker room and immediately established themselves by going on a 8-1 run and took a 37-35 lead when Gemmel canned a three-pointer with 18:27 on the clock. The game would remain tight as the teams traded leads five times while tied on three other occasions. With King's trailing 56-55 with 6:14 left, King's took the led for good on a short jumper by Tiffini Varrasse with 5:58 left while a pair of foul shots by Beth Jordan pushed the score to 59-56 with 5:36 on the clock. After Scranton scored on a basket by AnneMarie Russo, Wozniak scored inside, then Ryan followed with a crucial three-pointer to give the Lady Monarchs a 64-58 advantage with 3:19 remaining. Scranton would close to within 64-60 on a pair of foul shots by Gemmel, but would end the gamed with a 8-2 run on a 3-pointer by Varrasse, a bucket by Wozniak, and a pair of foul shots by Kingston.

King's appeared to be in trouble midway through the second half when Kingston left the game with a knee injury at the 10:02 mark with the game tied at 49-49 but the Lady Monarchs remained poised as Ryan and Jordan provided key offensive contribution. Ryan, who averaged 6.4 points entering the contest, netted 13 while hitting on four of five 3-pointers. Jordan, a 5-11 freshman forward, averaged just 3.4 points but netted a season-high nine points off the bench.

"That is the one thing about our team, we are so unselfish and it always seems like we have different players step up when we need it most," Whitten stated. "But I think the thing that put us over the top was our defense. I think we did a great job on the defensive end and made Scranton take some shots they might not normally be comfortable with. It was a great team effort and a huge win for us because we could not afford to fall two games behind them (Scranton) in the conference standings. I am very proud of the preparation out players put into this game as well as the effort on the floor."

With the win, King's improved to 12-2 overall and 3-1 in the MAC Freedom. Scranton, suffered its first loss of the year and stands at 13-1 and is also 3-1 in conference play.

The Lady Monarchs were also led by Varrasse with 12 points, five assists, and four steals. Kingston added eight points and four assists. Gemmel led Scranton with 19 points and seven rebounds, while Pierangeli and Katie Dougherty added 11 each.

In victory, Whitten became the Lady Monarchs' all-time victory lead as he improved his mark to 167-88 since taking over at King's in 1993-94, surpassing the previous mark of predecessor Robin Cummins who was 166-158 from 1981-1993.