ELIZABETHTOWN, Pa. – The University of Scranton men's basketball team (16-7, 8-4 Landmark) opened the game on a 16-0 run and led wire to wire in an 80-70 victory over the Elizabethtown Blue Jays (10-12, 4-8 Landmark) on Saturday afternoon at Thompson Gymnasium in Elizabethtown.

With the victory, the Royals are tied for third in the Landmark Conference standings with two regular season games remaining. The top four teams will qualify for the conference tournament that will get underway on Feb. 22.

Junior Tahaj Parland (Neptune, N.J./Mater Dei) opened the scoring on the day with a layup and consecutive three-pointers by sophomore Will McLoughlin (Glen Rock, N.J./Glen Rock), graduate student Jackson Danzig* (Clarks Green, Pa./Abington Heights) and freshman Jon Spatola (Marlboro, N.J./Marlboro) helped open up a 16-0 lead with 15:48 left in the first half. Spatola later hit his second three of the day for a 27-12 lead with 9:50 left in the opening stanza, but the Blue Jays began to battle back and used a 20-6 run that trimmed the Scranton lead to one at 33-32. Parland hit a free throw and McLoughlin then hit a three from near halfcourt for a 37-32 edge at the half.

ETown cut the lead to three on a couple of occasions including 43-40 with 15:56 to play before freshman EJ Matthews-Spratley (Cherry Hill, N.J./Cherry Hill East) buried a three to ignite a 14-3 run that McLoughlin capped off with four straight points for a 57-43 lead at the 10:40 mark. The Royals led by as many as 17 at two different points as a Danzig jumper made it 68-51 with 6:18 to play. Down the stretch, the Blue Jays cut the lead to nine with 2:16 remaining at 72-63, but Danzig answered with a bucket and Scranton converted 6-of-8 from the free throw line in the final 1:07 to secure the win.

Danzig led all scorers with 24 points on 9-of-15 shooting and has now scored 20 plus points in five of his last seven outings. McLoughlin added 21 points and also tallied a career-high 13 rebounds as he posted his second straight double-double, while Spatola contributed 10 points and six boards of his own.

Matthews-Spratley added seven points, six rebounds and three steals off the bench.

For McLoughlin, his 13 boards surpasses his previous career-high of 11 that had been set on two occasions including Wednesday's win at Drew.

Dylan Rowe had 14 points to pace the Blue Jays in the setback.

On the day, Scranton shot 48.3% (28-of-58) from the field, 45.5% (10-of-22) from deep and 82.4% (14-of-17) from the free throw line. The Blue Jays were 27-of-62 (43.5%) from the floor, 7-of-19 (36.8%) from beyond the arc and 9-of-15 (60.0%) from the charity stripe.

The Royals return home to host Moravian on Wednesday evening with opening tip in the John Long Center set for 7 p.m.

--ROYALS--