Travis Farrell	Brendan Boken
Michael Barr	Ross Danzig

Box Score
Photo Gallery (courtesy of Dan Ceccacci)

Photo Gallery (courtesy of Emma Black)

SCRANTON, Pa.—The University of Scranton men’s basketball team was less than four minutes away from its sixth straight appearance in the Landmark Conference championship game.

Unfortunately, the four-time champion Royals squandered a 10-point lead and dropped an 84-74 decision in double overtime to Juniata College Wednesday evening at the Long Center.

Sophomore guard Ross Danzig (Clarks Green, Pa./Abington Heights/Blair Academy) led Scranton with 26 points, freshman forward Brendan Boken (South Pasadena, Calif./Loyola) finished with 17 points and 11 rebounds, and senior guard Travis Farrell (Middletown, NJ/Christian Brothers Academy) contributed 16 points, 14 rebounds, five assists and two steals.

Juniata College, which advances to Saturday’s Landmark championship game against top-seeded Catholic University, was led by junior forward Brian Scholly (State College, Pa./State College) and junior guard Jeremy Hays (McMechen, W.Va./John Marshall) with 22 points apiece, junior guard Kevin Stapleton (Indiana, Pa./Indiana Area) finished with 13 points and nine rebounds, and senior guard Alex Raymond (Hollidaysburg, Pa./Altoona Area) chipped in 12 points, five rebounds, and five assists.

The game was an emotional roller-coaster.

The Eagles blitzed out to a 42-31 halftime lead by shooting nearly 61 percent from the field.  Scholly and Hayes combined for 25 first-half points as Juniata spread the court and got a number of high-percentage shots.

Had it not been for the efforts of junior guard Michael Barr (North Wales, Pa./Lansdale Catholic), the Royals might have dug themselves an even bigger hole.  He connected on 3 of 4 shots from the field to finish with eight points as Scranton shot just 35.7 percent from the field (10 of 28) in the opening 20 minutes of play.

Then the Royals turned it up a notch on defense.

They held the Eagles to just 10 points in more than 16 minutes, then put together what appeared to be a game-clinching 14-0 run to turn a 52-48 deficit into a 62-52 lead with 3:43 left.

Then, uncharacteristically, the Royals fell apart.  Scranton did not score the rest of the way, missing four field goal attempts and turning the ball over four times, and Juniata tied with up with 24 seconds left on a 3-pointer by freshman forward Kyle Koehler (Chester Springs, Pa./Devon Preparatory).

Juniata had a chance to win it in the first overtime period, but the Eagles failed to beat the shot clock with the score tied at 67 with 4.5 seconds remaining.  Farrell then attempted a deep 3-pointer as the buzzer sound, but his attempt was well off the mark.

The Eagles finally clinched it the second stanza.  Hays hit two free throws to break a 69-69 tie, Scholly followed with a 3-pointer after junior guard Lucas Mellott (Warfordsburg, Pa./Southern Fulton) came up with a steal, Mellott followed with a lay-up after Raymond forced another Royal turnover with a steal,  and Raymond added two free throws after that to give the Eagles a 9-point lead with 1:14 left.  Raymond hit four free throws down the stretch to seal it

In the second overtime period, Scranton committed three consecutive turnovers during the crucial game-changing run.  For the game, the Royals turned it over 17 times.

Farrell’s 14 rebounds were a career high.  He likely finishes his career with 1190 points, 540 rebounds, 261 assists, and 222 steals.  He is the only player in Scranton history to score more than 1000 points, pull down more than 500 rebounds, hand out more than 200 assists, and make more than 200 steals.

In all likelihood, Scranton finishes it season with a 19-7 record.

In all three of its Landmark Conference postseason tournament appearances, Juniata College has now reached the title game each time.  They lost to Scranton in both of their two previous tries, losing 64-57 in 2008 and 78-70 last year.

--ROYALS--