WILKES BARRE — They rained one after another, sometimes subsequently, others with a gentle push from the shoulders. Kasey Seitz was infuego. She couldn’t miss if she tried.
She wasn’t perfect, but it was her hot scoring combined with Tara Zdancewicz’s 13 points from the bench that led the Lady Monarchs past a top-regarded Delaware-Valley club, 89-72, Wednesday night at Scandlon Gymnasium.
The defense was impeccable. The scoring output was unlike something that’s been seen at home in nearly two seasons for King’s and for head coach Brian Donoghue, it’s a trend that’ll be here to stay.
“We thought we played well and it’s been coming for a little bit,” Donoghue said post game, now in his 10th year leading the Lady Monarchs.
“Our non-league schedule prepared us to get after it on our first league game, they were our pick for the second in the preseason poll and we have a lot of respect for their two kids: [Eireann] Anastasi and [Breanna] Croll.”
King’s (3-3) played all 14 possible members of their roster against the Aggies (2-4), marked the third best squad in the preseason Freedom Conference Women’s Basketball Poll.
The Lady Monarchs were paced by Seitz and then had four others in double-digit scoring, senior Marissa Manning with 16 points, freshman Olivia Hoffman with 11 points, Zdancewicz’s 13 and sophomore Kayla Feairheller chipping in 20 of her own.
King’s came in waves against the Aggies and Donoghue couldn’t have been more pleased with his team’s performance. It was capped with a 8-0 run at the end of the first half.
“That’s who we want to be,” Donoghue said about his team’s late run and their play in transition. “We ran a bigger lineup tonight but that lineup can run. We did some nice things, we still had some sloppy ballhandling, but that’s a great performance for us in a league game.”
The entirety of the contest wasn’t clean, King’s committed a whopping 23 turnovers against the Aggies’ pressure man-to-man defense. Anastasi and Droll combined for 39 of the Aggies 72 points, but also helped in their 13.8 percent shooting mark from deep.
But, the Lady Monarchs would lead the game for 85 percent on the contest and the Aggies only led one time in the game at the 11-9 mark in the first half. It was sheer dominance for the Lady Monarchs, a result unseen in Scandlon since the days of Kaitlin Michaels and the 2012 Sweet Sixteen team that stunned the nation.
King’s women’s basketball is back, and the conference has a new face to be concerned about.
“It was a good home win. It was a really good home win,” Donoghue said. “We had good energy in the building. And we talked to our young guys, they haven’t experienced that yet. So, they got to feel the energy tonight.”
Growlers
- Lady Monarchs started with four turnovers on poor decision making in the post which led to traveling violations: two by Manning, and one by Seitz
- Del-Val ended the first half with a 7-0 run which was answered by a King’s 7-0 run themselves ending with a Seitz triple
- Hoffman had three first half fouls, her aggressive defense not yielding many results in the eyes of the referees
- Largest lead of the night for King’s was 25 points by the 13:58 mark in the second half
Tyler R. Tynes covers King’s sports for WRKC Digital, follow him on Twitter @TylerRickyTynes or email him at TylerTynes@Kings.edu