SCRANTON, Pa.—Sophomore forward Brendan Boken (South Pasadena, Calif./Loyola) put together another dominating performance Wednesday evening, finishing with 24 points and eight rebounds to lead The University of Scranton men's basketball team to a 67-63 victory over Drew University in Landmark Conference action at the Long Center.

But it was junior guard Justin Klingman (Clarks Summit, Pa./Abington Heights) who made the biggest plays down the stretch to seal it for the Royals, now 19-3 overall and 9-2 in the conference.  The win was the ninth straight for Scranton, which took over sole possession of first place in the Landmark after co-leader Catholic University lost to Susquehanna this evening, 73-67.

Klingman finished with 17 points, including a 3-pointer with 1:47 to give Scranton a 7-point lead that Drew managed to slice to four with 14 seconds left after the Royals got a bit shaky.  Klingman, who made two free throws with 44 seconds left to put Scranton up nine, then came up with the game-clinching rebound after the Rangers missed a 3-pointer with six seconds remaining that would have cut the lead to one.

Senior guard Tommy Morgan (Greenlawn, NY/Chaminade) and junior guard Ross Danzig (Clarks Green, Pa./Abington Heights/Blair Academy) added 14 and 11 points, respectively, for Scranton, which shot nearly 67 percent from the field in the second half after taking a 27-24 halftime lead.

Drew, now 10-12 overall and 4-7 in the Landmark, was led by sophomore guard Mike Klinger (Franklin Park, NJ/Rutgers Preparatory) and senior guard John Ford (Holbrook, NY/Sachem North) with 14 points apiece and sophomore guard Brian McLaughlin (Blauvelt, NY/Tappan Zee) came off the bench and contributed 12 points.

Boken, who has now scored at least 20 points in each of his last four games, was unstoppable down low, connecting on 10 of 14 shots from the field and getting a number of Ranger front court players in foul trouble.

Nevertheless, the pesky Rangers, who upset the Royals last year at the Long Center in posting their first win here since 1997, continued to chip away even after Scranton built up a 13-point lead with 10:50 remaining and had a 10-point cushion with 5:35 left.  Ford and McLaughlin each buried a 3-pointer after the Royals missed three of four free throw attempts in the final 30 seconds of play, setting up a nail-biting finish.  For the game, Scranton was just 10-for-19 from the free throw line.

Drew offset a 39 percent shooting effort by making 14 of 16 free throw attempts.

And even though the Ranger reserves out-scored the Royal bench by a 25-1 margin, Scranton received quality minutes from steadily-improving sophomore forward Marcus Thomas (Clarksburg, Md./Clarksburg) and senior guard Mike Marchman (Blauvelt, NY/St. Joseph Regional).  Thomas pulled down five rebounds and had a steal and an assist in relieving Boken in the rotation and Marchman had three rebounds and three assists and did a solid job defensively on several Ranger backcourt players.

The Royals will return to action this Saturday, February 15, against Catholic University at the DuFour Center in Washington, DC, beginning at 4:00 p.m.