Kyle Hammonds
Frank Lauri - unauthorized use not permitted
Kyle Hammonds scored 27 points, all in the second half as King's fell to Scranton Friday night

King's Men Edged by Scranton 87-83 in Monarchs' 1st Game after 15-day Layoff

1/3/2014 9:36:00 PM

Box Score
JANUARY 3, 2014

KING'S EDGED BY SCRANTON 87-83 AT CROSS COUNTY CHALLENGE

SCRANTON -- After a 15-day break, the King's College men's basketball team could not overcome a sluggish start, falling 87-83 to the host University of Scranton on the first day of the Cross County Challenge Friday night in the John Long Center.

With the win, Scranton improved to 9-2 while the Monarchs slipped to 5-5.

Both teams started slowly as the game was tied 8-8 but Scranton went on a 8-0 surge to take a 16-9 lead with 11:50 left in the first half.

After a pair of foul shots from King's freshman Christian Skrepenak Scranton used a jumper by Timmy Morgan and two free throws each from Brendan Boken and Mike Marchman to stretch the Scranton lead to 27-12 with 8:34 on the clock. 

King's Tim O'Shea then converted a traditional traditional three-point play with a bucket and foul shot to cut the lead to 27-15 at the 8:09 mark. Monarch freshman Dan Rutecki then followed with a pair of foul shots to bring King's to within 27-17 with 7:35 remaining in the opening stanza. Tom Heston then cut the score to 29-21 at 6:39 before Skrepenak scored inside to bring the Monarchs to within 30-23 with 5:43 left in the half.

King's continued to attack the basket as Tim O'Shea was fouled and made one-of-two charity tosses to cut the lead to 30-24 at 5:06. Scranton countered with four straight points from Boken to push the score to 34-24 with 4:50 to go.

Justin Klingman canned a three-pointer for Scranton to push the score to 36-24 but King's Connor Hughes responded with a jumper to bring the Monarchs back to within 37-26. After a Scranton miss, O'Shea was again fouled and made one-of-two attempts to cut the score to 37-27 at the 2:57 mark. 

After King's closed to 40-33 on a jumper by Derek Wilkes at 1:26, Scranton answered with a Michael Barr three-pointer to give the Royals a 43-33 advantage. But the Monarchs closed out the half with one-of-two foul shots from O'Shea and a jumper by Joe Caffrey with 0:03 on the clock as King's closed to within 43-36 at the break.

King's started the second half with a 6-0 spurt and tied the game at 43-43 on a Kyle Hammonds jumper with 17:31 to play. After four straight points by the Royals, Hammonds canned at three-pointer to bring the score to 47-46 with 16:50 on the clock.

Scranton slowly built upon its lead 69-62 after a three-point play by Sean Cumming with 8:17 to play but the Monarchs used a 5-0 spurt to cut the lead to 69-67 on a Hammonds three-pointer with 7:45 left in the contest.  Scranton once again answered a King's spurt with one of its own when Justin Klingman drained a three-pointer and Boken converted a lay-up to push the lead to 74-67 with 6:40 on the clock.

After a King's miss Morgan made two free throws as the Scranton lead grew to 75-67 with 6:16 to play. After another Monarch miss, Boken was fouled and made one-of-two shots to give Scranton a 76-67 advantage. But would not quit as Hammonds buried a three-pointer for King's to bring the Monarchs within 76-70 at the 5:46 mark.

Scranton used one-of-two Klingman foul shots for a 77-70 advantage with 5:29 to play.

King's would cut the lead to five points when Heston converted a pair of foul shots with 4:05 on the clock to bring the Monarchs to within 79-74. O'Shea once again reached the foul line where he made two attempts to cut the Scranton lead to 80-76 with 2:52 to go.

After Klingman scored on a layup to push the score to 82-76 at the 1:59 mark. Heston then responded for King's with an inside bucket to bring the Monarchs to within 82-78 with 1:19 on the clock, but Klingman was fouled and made both free throws to give Scranton a 84-78 lead with 0:51 remaining. 

King's Dan Rutecki drew a foul and made both attempts to trim the lead to 84-80 with 0:32 left.  After a King's time out, the Monarchs were forced to foul  and put Ross Danzig on the line. Dan made both attempts to up the Scranton lead to 86-80 at the 0:22 mark.  But Hammonds buried a three-points for the Monarchs to bring the score to 86-83 with 0:15 to play. The Monarchs almost forced a turnover on the ensuing possession and were then forced to foul where Michael Barr made one-of-two shots with 0:06 left to set the final score.

The Monarchs were paced by Hammonds who scored all 27 of his points in the second half after failing to score the first 20 minutes of play. O'Shea followed with 14 points while Caffrey and Heston added 12 each. The Monarchs shot 45 (27-60) percent from the floor and 82 (23-28) from the foul line.

Scranton shot 55 (26-47) percent from the field and 67 (29-43) from the foul line. Boken led Scranton with 24 points while Klingman followed with 19 points. Danzig added 18 while Morgan chipped in with 13. 

King's will play its final game of the Cross County Challenge Saturday with a 2:00 p.m. matchup against Marywood in the John Long Center. Marywood upset Wilkes on a last-seccnd basket in the first game of the day.
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