WILKES BARRE — They got ran out of their own gym. Both on the court and in the score sheets.

It’s come to be regularity with King’s basketball, they look great the first 10 minutes, then they get shaky the next five and before the first half ends, you almost forget what you saw 15 minutes prior.

This is almost every game unless it’s a sure blowout. Penn State Hazleton did the same and they eventually loss, but they always had hope. Now, the preseason favorite to win it all, with a Division I transfer and one of the most balanced squads in the conference kept the narrative strong.

The Monarchs need to learn how to rebound from the poor end of a half. Whether it’s coaching or inexperience on the floor by starting four players who haven’t seen more than two seasons of college basketball experience, something’s wrong.

But to head coach J.P. Andrejko, Del-Val just wasn’t a better team than them on Wednesday night. Well, that just might not be true.

“I don’t think anyone was better, let’s not go that far,” Andrejko said post-game. “They are just a very good team. A veteran team. An experienced team and they played that way.”

In five minutes out of the half, the Aggies turned a tied game at halftime into a 42-26 deficit, an 18-2 run that kept them ahead for the ball game.

Dan Rutecki was brilliant from the stripe, netting 11 of 12 from the line, but an unusual 3-for-9 everywhere else. King’s shot 30 percent from the field and a worst 12 percent from deep. Del-Val made their point pretty clear. They were the better squad.

But something needs to be taken away from how King’s responded in the second half. The starters, alone, were 11-for-32 from the field. It wasn’t just that the Aggies were better, more polished or had better chemistry.

It was that King’s couldn’t get it together offensively. They couldn’t initiate offense. And when they did, no one was doing enough outside of Rutecki. No one could just flick a switch and take over the game.

“Because of the pressure, we didn’t turn the ball over, but it took us to long to initiate offense,” Andrejko said. “That was the first problem. Secondly, we stopped doing the good things we did earlier: setting good screens and started to dribble the ball. Against a team that is that quick, you won’t out dribble them.”

Not much can be taken away from this loss for the Monarchs. Two seniors, the one’s who know the offense the best, played six minutes total. Connor Hughes, Derek Wilkins and Nate Oliver couldn’t, respectively, play more than 20 minutes.

After the buzzer rang and the second half started, King’s was ineffective on every level of the court. Non-conference wins are great, but at 0-1 in the Freedom, something needs to change quickly before Saturday against FDU-Florham.

“It was a battle of wills,” Andrejko said. “This is league play. This is exactly what’s going to happen. Expect it every night we go out. [The team and I] can talk about it, but we have to do it…the beauty of it is: this is one out of 14. We have 13 more of these to go. As long as we learn from tonight, improve on it, than that’s fine.”

Tyler R. Tynes covers King’s sports for WRKC Digital, follow him on Twitter @TylerRickyTynes or email him at TylerTynes@Kings.edu