The first half was fairly shaky for the King’s College men’s basketball team as they trailed 39-34 to 1-18 FDU-Florham. The Monarchs manged to shoot just 44 percent while allowing 55 percent of their opponent shots to go through the net.
The second half was a different story as King’s opened up the half by outscoring the Devils by 15 points just 10 minutes into the half to take an 11 point lead. The Monarchs went on to win the game 86-74.
When asked if he ripped into his team at half time coach JP Andrejko said “What happens there is good, it’s all good” alluding to a mentality of keeping it all in the locker room with his boys.
King’s was led by sophomore Dan Rutecki who has put together back-to-back 25 plus-point games and scored at will in the second half. He finished with 28 points and 10 boards.
The Monarchs attack was very balanced and did not just rely on Rutecki. The Fazzini brothers, John and Chris, finished with 32 points combined.
Coming off the bench was senior Tim O’Shea who put together a very solid performance. He finished 16 points in just 23 minutes. Andrejko was very pleased with the way his upperclassman has been playing.
“Timmy has given us great minutes,” Andrejko said. “He is being a presence inside, finishing inside, rebounding the ball extremely well, playing great.”
It looked as if King’s started off slow because maybe they were looking at this game as pushover. They picked it up at the start of the second half and the better team won.
Though Andrejko wouldn’t talk about what was said behind the wooden locker room doors past the baseline in Scandlon Gymnasium, it didn’t matter. Whatever it was, it worked.
Vito Malacari covers King’s sports for WRKC Digital, follow him on Twitter @VitoMalacari23 or email him at VitoMalacari@Kings.edu