Storylines –King Game
Having won four of its past five games, King enters Sunday's tilt at UVa-Wise playing its best basketball of the season. The Conference Carolinas' leader most recently posted an 84-61 road victory over Belmont Abbey, the win is part of four straight by the Tornado to open league play. In the win over Belmont Abbey, King's Brittany Stringer scored a career-high 24 points. The senior guard made six of eight 3-point field goal attempts as she cracked double figures for just the second time this season. As a team, the Tornado are averaging 69.1 points per game while making 39.5 percent of their field goal attempts. An area of concern for coach Josh Thompson's team has been King's performance at the free throw line. Through nine games, the Tornado are making just 58.7 percent of their free thow attempts. Thompson has routinely started four guards this season with the lone post player being six-foot-two-inch Amy Van Deventer. The six-foot-two Van Deventer is joined by a quartet of five-foot-eight-inch players in the starting lineup. By contrast, UVa-Wise starts a pair of six-footers in
Kayla Carey and
Alle Moore while starting point guard
Taylor Sandidge is the only Cavalier in the rotation under five-foot-eight. The lengthy lineup has benefited UVa-Wise as the team leads the Mountain East Conference in rebounding margin at +7.1 per game. King is losing the battle of the boards by 0.4 per game. Ashley Albertson is King's leading the scorer. The reserve center is averaging 10.9 points per game, Van Deventer leads the team in rebounding at 7.2 per contest. The lone common opponent for the two teams is Tusculum, UVa-Wise defeated the Pioneers 74-66 while King lost in overtime 73-70.
About UVa-WIseUVa-Wise concludes the 2015 portion of its schedule on Sunday, the contest also concludes a five-game home stand for coach
Kristin Kunzman's squad. Thus far, the Cavaliers are 3-1 during the stretch. Most recently, UVa-Wise hammered West Virginia Tech 94-51 last Sunday. In the win, senior guard
Blair Harding recorded a season-high 23 points while grabbing nine rebounds and dishing out six assists. The 94 points were a season-high for the Cavs who have now scored 80 or more points in three consecutive games. A year ago, King handed UVa-Wise a 54-38 loss in Bristol; the 38 points are the fewest scored by the Cavs since
Kristin Kunzman became head coach.
Kayla Carey was the only player to finish in double figures as she posted 10 points on 4-8 shooting. As a team, UVa-Wise went to the free throw line just four times in the loss while shooting 28.1 percent from the field. A win Sunday would allow the Cavs to go undefeated in non-conference games for the second time in three seasons; UVa-Wise posted a perfect 4-0 mark in non-league games during the 2013-14 campaign. Eighteen Mountain East Conference games remain on the schedule for the Cavs. When the team returns from the holiday break they will embark on a four-game road trip beginning on Jan.4 at Fairmont State University.
