NOVEMBER 25, 2017

SCRANTON MEN RALLY PAST KING'S IN CROSS COUNTY CHALLENGE OPENER

SCRANTON -- The King's College men's basketball team held a 11-point lead with 16:41 left in the contest but the host University of Scranton rallied to post a 85-79 victory in the first round of the Cross County Challenge Saturday at the John Long Center.

With the win Scranton improved to 2-2 on the year while King's slipped to 2-2.

King's took a 43-40 lead into the half-time break and slowly extended the lead early in the second half.

Four straight points by Cris Fazzini, a three-pointer from Joshua Bailey, and a short jumper from Connor Callejas gave the Monarchs a 52-43 lead. After one-of-two free throws from the Royals, James Willis hit a three-pointer for King's to push the Monarch lead to 55-44 with 16:41 left in the contest.

But Scranton countered with a 14-2 run to take a 58-57 lead after an inside bucket by Kyle DeVerna.  King's countered with a driving lay-up by Noah Tanner and two foul shots by Callejas to recapture the lead at 61-58 with 11:25 on the clock. The Royals would tie the game at 63-63 on a Jack Connelly three-pointer at the 10:45 mark but King's responded with a 7-0 surge thanks to a lay-up from Willis, a short jumper by Fazzini, and a three-pointer from Tyler Millan to build a 70-63 advantage with 8:31 to play.

After King's maintained a seven-point lead when a Lenny Radziak driving lay-up gave the Monarchs a 72-65 lead with 7:51 on the clock, Scranton responded with a 7-0 run of its own to tie the game at 72-72 on a Kevin Doolan jumper with 4:26 to go.

After the teams traded leads, King's used a three-pointer by Millan to forge ahead 79-78 with 1:29 to play.  But Scranton answered right away when Mitch Cross canned a three-pointer of his own to put the Royals on top 81-79 with 1:07 left.

King's attempted to answer but a three-pointer by Callejas with 0:43 on the clock rimmed out and Scranton added to its lead when Drew Schankweiler scored on a put-back following a Doolan missed lay-up with 0:14 left. King's Bailey would miss a three-pointer with 0:08 to go and Scranton rebound and scored on a lay-up as time expired to set the final score.

Callejas led King's with 16 points and four assists while Fazzini followed with 14 points and five rebounds. Millan added 11 points while Willis tallied 10 points and five boards.  The Monarchs shot 48.4 (31-64) percent from the floor compared to 51.5 (34-66) percent for Scranton.

Ethan Danzig led all scorers with 28 points and made 8-of-17 from three-point range. Schankweiler followed with 19 points while Cross and DeVerna added 14 and 12 respectively.

King's will play Marywood on Sunday at 1:00 PM on the final day of the event.