The King’s Lady Monarch basketball team is putting together a roller-coaster ride of a season.
One game, the Red and Gold catch fire and shoot an extremely high percentage from the field. The next, they struggle to put the ball through the nylon, as was the case against No. 24 Eastern Wednesday night in Scandlon Gymnasium.
The Lady Monarchs look to bounce back from Wednesday night’s trouncing when Misericordia takes the trip down to Wilkes-Barre for a 1 p.m. clash. The Monarchs are just one game back of the final playoff spot.
The Lady Cougars are 1-21 (1-10 Freedom) and their only win came against DeSales who also has one Freedom Conference victory. King’s slipped past Misericordia 59-53 in a showdown at the Anderson Center back on January 21st.
Although the Lady Cougars only have one conference win and have struggled against the majority of their opponents, King’s Coach Brian Donoghue, in his tenth season guiding the Lady Monarchs, isn’t concerned about tomorrow night’s battle.
“All games are the same,” said Donoghue when asked about the importance of the upcoming contest. “We play a fourteen game schedule and you either get one win or one loss,”
Misericordia is averaging 57.2 points per game while allowing their opponents to score 71.9 points per game. The Cougars boast a big three of Lauren Smicherko, Justine Seely, and Shelby Brochetti provide the brunt of the scoring for them.
Smicherko (12.2 PPG) is a force inside along with fellow frontcourt mate Seely (11.7 PPG) and Brochetti (9.7 PPG) compliments the two inside presences with her touch from viagraforlife.net beyond the arc with fifteen treys.
Coach Donoghue stressed the importance of improving his team’s defensive effort from the first meeting between the two schools.
“We aren’t going to add any wrinkles,” Donoghue said about the gameplay for Saturday. “We weren’t good enough with our halfcourt defense.”
The Monarchs come into the game scoring an average of 59.3 points per game while allowing 67.6 on the defensive end of the floor. The Monarch offensive attack has been inconsistent thus far in the season but when clicking, the Lady Monarchs can be a dangerous team to tame on when they have the ball.
Sophomore forward Kayla Feairheller leads the Monarchs, averaging 12.7 points per contest, while downing a team-high 36 three-point field goals.
Senior Marissa Manning has brought great play on the floor along with incredible leadership that comes with being one of the old heads on the team. Manning averages 10.5 points per game this year in her final season suiting up in the red and gold.
“We enjoy where we are,” Donoghue said. “The sophomores are playing really well again. The freshmen are coming on and our juniors and seniors are doing a great job leading,”
The Monarchs blend of youth and experience makes them a team that can be dangerous but has been very unpredictable this season.
Sophomore Kasey Seitz is averaging 8.5 points per game while draining 32 field goals from beyond the arc. Freshman Olivia Hoffman has shown to be a piece that will be very valuable down the road for coach Donoghue’s team.
And though playoffs are rapidly approaching, Donoghue shook off the notion pertaining the postseason. It’s an everyday mentality for King’s College Women’s basketball. No more nor less.
“We are working hard to be the best team we can be,” Donoghue said.
Donny Hopkins covers King’s sports for WRKC Digital, follow him on Twitter @HopkinsDonny or email him at DonaldHopkins@Kings.edu