BOX SCORE

Wilkes-Barre, Pa. (Dec. 15, 2008) – Alvernia (4-4, 1-2) squandered a 14-point second half lead in a 66-63 loss to King's College (4-5, 2-1) Monday evening in Freedom Conference women's basketball action at Scandlon Gymnasium. Sophomore Kelli McIntyre (Orwigsburg, Pa./Blue Mountain) scored a team-high 22 points and sophomore Alex Velazquez (Lancaster, Pa./Manheim Township) returned from a two-game absence to record her third double-double of the season with 16 points and 13 rebounds. 

Alvernia took a 14-point lead, 40-26 on a McIntyre jumper with 16:35 left in the game, but King's rattled off eight straight points over two minutes to cut the deficit to six. Alvernia fed the streak committing three turnovers in four possessions and King's senior Kaitlyn Fiorino (New Brunswick, N.J./Immaculata) scored seven of her game-high 31 to pace the Monarchs. 

Alvernia pushed the lead back to eight points twice, both after a pair of free throws, but King's put together another spurt scoring five straight to pull within three points with 11:24 to play. 

Alvernia answered with six of the next seven to rebuild the eight-point lead, but King's put together a 12-4 run to tie the score at 56-all with 6:15 to play. Fiorino scored five of the 12 for the Monarchs including one of her five 3s on the night. 

Alvernia hit 1-of-2 free throws on its next possession, but King's came back with a pair from the line to take a 58-57 lead, its first since it held three at 8-5. 

The lead seesawed back and forth three times before a King's free throw tied the score at 61-all with 1:43 to play. McIntyre was fouled on Alvernia's next possession, but missed a pair from the line. For the seventh time this season Alvernia shot better than 70 percent from the free throw line, but fell to 3-4 in those games. 

King's rebounded the second miss and Brittany Muscatell (Lambertville, N.J./Immaculata) connected on the Monarchs' seventh 3 of the night for a 64-61 lead. Alvernia junior Joanna Graber (Manalapan, N.J./Notre Dame) hit a pair of free throws, but Muscatell answered with 10 ticks left for the final margin. 

McIntyre surpassed 20 points for the fourth time this season and Velazquez was the only other Crusader to reach double digits. Paige Carlin (Scotrun, Pa./Pocono Mountain East) joined Fiorino in double digits for King's scoring a dozen points off the bench. 

Alvernia is off for the break and will host Moravian College on Jan. 5. 

Senior reserve Michelle Lutzkanin (Hummelstown, Pa./Lower Dauphin) provided a spark off the bench in the first half hitting a 3 to spark a 10-2 run that put the Crusaders up 10, 25-15 with 7:30 left in the half. Alvernia struggled from the floor from the start missing each of its first 10 shots and finishing the half 8-of-34 from the floor including a 5-of-18 effort from long range. Lutzkanin saved the day hitting half of the team's 3s in five attempts. 

King's trimmed the lead to seven and eventually down to six points on a Fiorino 3 with under a minute left in the half, but McIntyre pushed the gap back to nine drilling a 3-pointer 16 seconds before the break. 

King's 66, Alvernia 63