Wilkes-Barre, PA, (January 15, 2005) – The DeSales University women’s basketball team fell behind early and was never able to recover in the second half falling to King’s College, 65-58, in Freedom Conference action on Saturday afternoon in Scandlon Gymnasium.

 

        The loss drops the Bulldogs to 10-3 overall and 3-1 in the Freedom Conference, while the Lady Monarchs improve to 13-1 and 4-0 in the Freedom.  The Bulldogs shot just 28.1 percent from the field for the game, while King’s canned 49.0 percent.  DeSales forced 20 Lady Monarch turnovers but KC out-rebounded DSU, 44-32, in the game.

 

        Trailing by just one, 10-9, with 14:16 left in the first half, King’s went on a 13-1 run over the next four minutes to take a 23-10 lead.  The lead grew to as many as 14 points, 31-17, before the Bulldogs started to chip away.  Freshman Amanda Kuperavage (Port Carbon, PA/Nativity BVM) provided the spark for DeSales as she grabbed an offensive rebound and converted to cut the deficit to 12 points.

       

        Three more charity tosses by Kuperavage, followed by four straight freebies from senior Maria Viercinski (West Wyoming, PA/Bishop Hoban) and the lead was down to seven points, 35-28, at the half.

 

        Senior Alyssa Antolick (Bethlehem, PA/Bethlehem Catholic) nailed a three-pointer to start the second-half and the lead was down to four points, 35-31.  KC’s Katie Lala answered the Antolick trey with a jumper and Vienna Spitler knocked down a three-pointer and the lead was back to nine points for the Lady Monarchs.  Consecutive field goals by Beth Jordan of King’s pushed the margin to 10 points with 15:52 left to play before DeSales made another run again led by Kuperavage.  Consecutive lay-ups by the freshman quickly cut the lead to six points and the margin went back and forth over the next several minutes.

 

        With King’s leading by seven, 50-43, another Kuperavage lay-up followed by a lay-up from sophomore Kirby Lutz (Easton, PA/Pen Argyl) saw the Bulldogs draw as close as three points, 50-47, but a quick 6-0 run by KC again pushed the lead up to nine points, 56-47, with 8:26 remaining.

 

        The game went back and forth over the next three minutes before DSU used a 5-0 run with all its points coming from the free throw line to trim the lead back down to three points at 58-55 with 3:10 left to play.  Two freebies from Jordan pushed the lead back to five and a running jumper from Spitler made it a seven-point game with 1:37 left and the Lady Monarchs iced the game from the free throw line.

 

        Antolick led the attack for DeSales with 15 points and Kuperavage was sensational off the bench scoring a season-high 14 points on a perfect 5-for-5 shooting from the field.

 

        King’s saw four players reach double digits including Jordan with 18 points, Spitler with 14 points, Lala with 13 points and Kristin Yeasted with 10 points.  Jordan added a game-high 12 rebounds and Lala added 10 boards.