WILKES-BARRE – Rebecca Prociak keeps adding to her game and keeps adding to the list of honors she has received while playing basketball for King’s College.
Prociak, a senior from Jenkins Township and a graduate of Holy Redeemer High School, was a first-team Middle Atlantic Conference Freedom all-star in both her sophomore and junior seasons. With a strong performance on her home court in the Cross County Challenge, Prociak earned an all-tournament selection and MAC Freedom Offensive Player of the Week honors in late November.
“The fact that she is a senior who has been doing so much that she is obviously on the scouting reports for everyone else, she has to be able to build on her game,” King’s coach Caitlin Hadzimichalis said. “That she is doing that as a senior, shows her leadership and shows that she wants to be a competitor and wants to win.
“We have to get to that point now where we get over the hump.”
Prociak is one of the biggest reasons King’s is 4-2 and has reason to believe it can place higher than the fourth-place Freedom finish that was predicted by conference coaches in a preseason poll.
“We’re going to prove everyone wrong this year,” Prociak said.
Prociak becoming an even stronger rebounder is one of the ways King’s will try to do that.
“We’re actually expanding her game,” Hadzimichalis said. “We’re talking about how she needs to rebound more.
“She’s got to be able to do that, because she’s capable of doing it. If she gets more offensive rebounds, she can get more put-backs and get on the foul line a little bit more.”
Prociak is second on King’s with 20.2 points per game. She leads the Monarchs in points rebounds (10.5) and blocked shots (2.0) while hitting 48.4 percent from the floor and also adding 2.7 assists and 1.2 steals.
The 5-foot-11 forward received her fourth career weekly award from the MAC after totaling 67 points, 22 rebounds and six assists in three games. In her most recent outing Wednesday, Prociak posted her third double-double with 20 points and 17 rebounds in an 80-76 road win over Elizabethtown.
Prociak had 22 points and 10 rebounds in a 93-57 romp over Marywood University. In the other Cross County Challenge game, she had 17 points in a 77-69 loss to the University of Scranton, a Final Four team a year ago which is ranked third nationally.
“We’re not satisfied,” said Prociak, who has 1,188 career points by increasing her scoring average each season from 11.7 to 13.8 to 16.5 and now above 20. “We haven’t proved anything yet. We’re ready to prove that we’re a good team and we can play with anyone.
“We’re just going to capitalize on our defense because we know we can score.”
With Prociak leading the way, the Monarchs rank fourth in the country among National Collegiate Athletic Association Division III teams at 85.7 points per game. After the game they played Saturday against Elmira, King’s plays just once more before New Year’s Eve, traveling to Albright Dec. 19.
