SCRANTON, PA (January 4, 2020) -- The King's College men's basketball team got an offensive burst from its bench as they totaled 45 points, but the efforts came up just short as the Monarchs fell to the Royals of the University of Scranton, 85-79. The Monarchs drop to 6-4 on the season as conference action starts this upcoming week.

Scranton opened the game on a 6-0 run over the first 1:42  before a three from sophomore Kevin Hunter broke the Royals run.  The Monarchs struggled to put the ball in the basket as they did not score again for almost two minutes before a three by freshman Tyler Faux broke the scoring drought, pulling within four, 10-6. Then, the host Royals went on a 17-6 run to build a double-digit lead, holding a 27-12 advantage with 9:42 left. A three by sophomore JJ Glinsky brought the Monarchs within single digits, 31-24, with 4:39 to go in the opening half before the teams traded baskets over the remainder of the half to post the halftime score, 39-32.

The Royals started the second half with the same offensive surge they began the game with, regaining a double-digit lead on a 12-8 run, 51-40, with 15:59 to play. A transition three by Glinsky a minute later sparked a  7-0 run by the Monarchs to bring the lead back to single-digits, 54-50, with 13:20 remaining. Then three-straight points from Logan Bailey and a three by Matthew Mancuso put the Royal lead back to 10, 60-50, with 11:52 left on the game clock.

Each time it looked as though the Royals would put the game away, the Monarchs responded with a big three or an aggressive play in the paint, as the back-and-forth battle continued. A layup by senior Andrew Hudak brought King's within two, 70-68, but then immediately fouled on the other end to send Scranton to the charity stripe to spark a 10-6 Royals run  that saw Scranton leading by six, 80-74, with 2:57 left. The Monarchs got several good looks over the final stretch, but they could not convert and were forced to send Scranton to the foul line as they were in the double bonus over the final 10 minutes of play to secure the win, 85-79.

The sophomore duo of Glinsky and Jake Pawliczak led the offense as Glinsky totaled 21 points on 8-14 shooting, including 5-8 from three, with a team-high three assists and Pawliczak recorded his first double-double of the season with 18 points and 10 rebounds.  Junior Brad Kalinowski was the other lone Monarch to record double figures with 14 points, six boards, two steals, and two assists. Faux also performed well with eight points and five rebounds.

In a physical matchup, the Monarchs controlled the advantage on the boards, pulling down 41 rebounds compared to the Royals 34. As a team, King's shot 45.1 percent from the field, including 57.6 percent in the second half. They also recorded nine steals on 15 Scranton turnovers. Inside the box score, the Monarchs held the advantage in points off turnovers (18-14), second chance points (17-5), bench points (45-16), and points in the paint (34-28).

King's will look to bounce back as they open Middle Atlantic Conference Freedom (MAC Freedom) play on Wednesday in a doubleheader with the women at Eastern University, with tip-off set for 6:00 p.m.