Center Valley, PA, (February 5, 2005) – Entering today the King’s College men’s basketball team had lost five straight and seven of the last eight to DeSales University but today was a different story as the Monarchs shook off a slow start and defeated the Bulldogs, 85-62, in Freedom Conference action on Saturday afternoon.

 

        The loss drops the Bulldogs to 15-6 overall and 7-3 in the Freedom, while the Monarchs take sole possession of first place in the Freedom Conference, improving to 17-4 overall and 8-2 in the conference standings.  King’s finished the game shooting 52.6 percent from the field and drilled 11-of-22 three-point attempts (50.0%) to record the win.  The Monarchs also held a 36-24 lead on the boards and forced 18 Bulldog miscues.

 

        The game started in favor of DeSales as the Bulldogs held a 19-10 lead at the 14:36 mark on a trey by senior Kyle Koch (Lehighton, PA/Lehighton), but the remaining 34+ minutes belonged to King’s as they used a 20-7 run over the next five minutes to take a 30-26 lead. 

 

        The Bulldogs regained the lead at 35-33 before KC ended the half on an 11-2 run to take a 44-37 lead into the locker room.  John Soboleski came off the bench to score a team-high 12 points for King’s on a perfect 5-for-5 shooting.

 

        In the second half it was more King’s as the Monarchs increased their lead to 20 points with a 17-4 run after halftime and the Bulldogs never recovered.

 

        Four players reached double digits for the Monarchs including Landon Gabriel with a team-high 15 points on 5-for-5 shooting from long distance.  Thomas Moore added 13 tallies off the bench, Soboleski finished with 12 points, all in the first half, and Marty O’Hora scored 12 points, grabbed seven rebounds and handed out seven assists in the win.

 

        Senior Michael Venafra (Belmont Hills, PA/Lower Merion) led DeSales with 17 points and Koch added 10 tallies.  Freshman Michael McParlin (Pawtucket, RI/LaSalle Academy) had eight points off the bench and senior David Spadt (Emmaus, PA/Emmaus) totaled five points, four rebounds, six assists and three steals in the loss.