SCRANTON, Pa. – The University of Scranton men's basketball team (3-10, 1-5 Landmark) battled for all 40 minutes, but came up short in an 87-73 loss to the Susquehanna River Hawks (8-4, 5-0 Landmark) on Saturday afternoon at the John Long Center in Scranton.

Susquehanna scored the first eight points of the game and got off to a hot start with a 10-2 lead at the 16:46 mark of the first half. The Royals then began to battle back and cut the lead to 17-12 on junior Cameron Khoza's (State College, Pa./Bishop Guilfoyle) three-pointer with 14:17 to go in the opening stanza. However, the River Hawks quickly responded with a 10-2 run and took a 27-14 lead for the time being before Scranton fought back within four at 29-25 on a three by freshman Brendan Carr (Northport, N.Y./Northport). Over the final seven plus minutes of the half, the Royals continued to battle and eventually closed the half with six straight points including senior Tahaj Parland's (Neptune, N.J./Mater Dei) layup in the waning seconds that cut the deficit to four at 42-38 at the break.

Susquehanna held a 53-47 edge in the early stages of the second half, but Scranton then scored five straight points and eventually tied the game at 55 apiece on a three from Parland with 13:40 to play. The game remained deadlocked at 59 following consecutive jumpers by sophomore Jon Spatola (Marlboro, N.J./Marlboro) before the River Hawks were able to use a 17-2 run over the next seven plus minutes which opened up a 76-61 advantage. Scranton was unable to get any closer than 13 over the final 4:09 as the visitors preserved the victory.

Parland led the Royals with a career-high 24 points on 9-of-13 shooting and was joined in double figures by Khoza with 16 points, freshman Nick Ruisi (Greenlawn, N.Y./Harborfields/Cheshire Academy) with 12 and sophomore Teddy Spratt (Doylestown, Pa./Central Bucks West) who had 10. For Parland, his 24-point performance surpasses his previous career-high of 18 that had been set in a victory at Moravian on Jan. 19, 2022.

Steven Ressler paced five River Hawks in double figures with 26 points.

Scranton shot 51.9% (28-of-54) from the floor and 40.0% (8-of-20) from deep on the day and Susquehanna was 35-of-55 (63.6%) from the field and 12-of-20 (60.0%) from long range.

Khoza corralled a game-high six rebounds for the Royals.

The Royals will hit the road to face Catholic in a Landmark battle on Friday evening with start time set for 5 p.m.

--ROYALS--