Ross Danzig	Tim Lavelle
Brendan Boken	Kyle Ranck

Box Score
Photo Gallery (courtesy of Barry Ashworth)

MADISON, NJ—Sophomore guard Ross Danzig (Clarks Green, Pa./Abington Heights/Blair Academy-NJ) scored 19 points and senior guard Tim Lavelle (Clarks Green, Pa./Scranton Preparatory) added a career-high tying 17 points to lead The University of Scranton to a 77-68 victory in overtime against Drew University in Landmark Conference men’s basketball action Wednesday evening at Baldwin Gymnasium.

The Royals, now 16-6 overall and 7-4 in the Landmark, also received nine points and seven rebounds from freshman forward Brendan Boken (South Pasadena, Calif./Loyola) and eight points apiece from juniors Tommy Morgan (Greenlawn, NY/Chaminade) and Kyle Ranck (Lewisburg, Pa./Lewisburg).

Freshman guard Mike Klinger (Franklin Park, NJ/Rutgers Preparatory) led the Rangers, now 9-13 overall and 3-8 in the conference, with 21 points and junior guard Luke Glass (Rumson, NJ/Rumson-Fair Haven) added 18.

Scranton needed the victory to keep pace with 8th-ranked Catholic University, which took a three-game lead with three games remaining in the battle for the top spot in the Landmark by downing Susquehanna University tonight, 74-53.  The Royals will face the Cardinals Saturday at the Long Center with a mathematical chance of earning the top seed, but they’ll need help down the stretch to overtake them in the standings.

Nevertheless, the Royals can still get a home game in the upcoming Landmark tournament by finishing second.  Scranton enters its final three games tied for second with Juniata, but it holds the tiebreaker over the Eagles because it swept them during the regular season.

That’s what made tonight’s win so important.

And they did it with clutch plays down the stretch, including a traditional 3-point play by Boken with 42 seconds remaining to tie it up after the Rangers opened up a 4-point lead with 2:12 left.

Morgan then opened the extra stanza with a 3-pointer and Boken and Danzig sandwiched lay-ups around one of two free throws by Klinger to give Scranton a 6-point lead.  The Rangers did make it a one-possession game with 2:22 left, but Danzig hit back-to-back lay-ups to give Scranton a two-possession lead it never relinquished.

The Royals made 5 of 6 shots in the overtime period (83.3 percent) and shot nearly 48 percent from the field for the game to offset a disappointing 12-for-22 effort (54.5 percent) from the free throw line.  Scranton did, however, enjoy a 49-33 rebounding advantage, turning 15 offensive rebounds into 19 second-chance points.

Drew, which defeated the Royals 72-69 at the Long Center on January 16, shot over 48 percent in the first half to open up a 33-31 halftime lead, but the Rangers shot only 33.3 percent in the second half, including just 2 of 8 (25 percent) in the overtime period.
Saturday’s game between the Royals and Catholic University tip-offs at 7:00 p.m.

--ROYALS--