SCRANTON, Pa. – The University of Scranton men's basketball team (18-7, 10-4 Landmark) held off a late Juniata rally and clinched the No. 3 seed in the Landmark Conference Tournament with a 77-71 victory over the Eagles (16-9, 9-5 Landmark) on Saturday afternoon at the John Long Center in Scranton.

The third-seeded Royals will hit the road to battle No. 2 seed Catholic in semifinal action on Wednesday at 7 p.m., while No. 4 seed Juniata will battle top seeded Susquehanna in the day's other semifinal.

In the final minute of regulation on Saturday, the Eagles fought back to cut the lead to 73-71 with 0:16 left after a Tyler Lapetina three. However, senior Stephen Braunstein* (Colts Neck, N.J./Christian Brothers Academy) calmly sank two free throws on the other end and freshman Jon Spatola (Marlboro, N.J./Marlboro) did the same to preserve the 77-71 win for the Royals.

The Royals were hot out of the gate on Saturday, scoring 14 of the first 19 points as a three by Braunstein made it 14-5 with 15:21 to go in the first half. Scranton later led 23-11 following a three from sophomore Cameron Khoza (State College, Pa./Bishop Guilfoyle) at the 11:12 mark before Juniata began to put together a 12-4 run that cut the lead to four at 27-23. The Royals had an immediate response as a three by Braunstein and consecutive threes from graduate student Jackson Danzig* (Clarks Green, Pa./Abington Heights) stretched the lead back into double digits at 36-25 and the hosts eventually took a 38-32 advantage into halftime.

Danzig opened the scoring in the second half with a three and the Royals began the stanza on an 17-5 run that resulted in a 55-37 lead following a three from freshman EJ Matthews-Spratley (Cherry Hill, N.J./Cherry Hill East) with 12:35 to play. The lead would remain in double digits over the next five plus minutes until Lapetina sank a three that drew the Eagles within nine at 64-55. From there, Braunstein once again answered with a triple and Scranton led 71-57 with 4:30 left before Juniata began their afore-mentioned late rally that the Royals thwarted with the four late free throws to secure the victory.

With the win, head coach Carl Danzig now has 399 for his career and sits just one shy of 400 career wins.

Braunstein and Danzig each scored 23 points to lead the Royals as Braunstein was 8-of-14 (5-of-11 3PT) from the field and Danzig was 7-of-12 (4-of-8 3PT). The duo of Matthews-Spratley and sophomore Will McLoughlin (Glen Rock, N.J./Glen Rock) added seven points apiece.

Danzig has now scored 20-plus points in each of his last four games and

Chase Husted paced the Eagles with 20 points and 12 rebounds in the setback.

The Royals shot 54.0% (27-of-50) from the floor and 44.8% (13-of-29) from deep to go along with 83.3% (10-of-12) at the free throw line. For Juniata, the Eagles were 26-of-62 (41.9%) from the field, 11-of-24 (45.8%) from long range and 8-of-11 (72.7%) from the charity stripe.

Scranton held a slight 30-29 edge in the rebounding battle behind eight boards from McLoughlin.

A full preview of Wednesday's semifinal matchup will be posted at athletics.scranton.edu on Tuesday.

--ROYALS--