DAYTONA BEACH, Fla.—Junior guard Tim Lavelle (Clarks Green, Pa./Scranton Preparatory) ended The University of Scranton's recent string of last-second losses Monday evening at the Daytona Beach Shootout.

Lavelle finished with 13 points, including a layup with seven seconds remaining, as the Royals overcame an 8-point deficit with 3:26 remaining to defeat North Central College (Ill.), 64-62.

Scranton, which snapped a two-game losing streak to improve to 5-4, also received 11 points apiece from freshman guard Ross Danzig (Clarks Green, Pa./Abington Heights/Blair Academy-NJ) and sophomore guard Tommy Morgan (Greenlawn, NY/Chaminade) and 10 from junior guard Travis Farrell (Middletown, NJ/Christian Brothers Academy).

Sophomore guard C.J. Goldthree (Fairview Heights, Ill./Belleville East) led North Central, now 4-5, with 24 points and eight rebounds and sophomore forward Landon Gamble (Joliett, Ill./Lockport Township) finished with 11 points and seven rebounds.  The Cardinals, who led 33-28 at intermission and by 13 with 9:11 remaining in the second half, also received 10 points apiece from sophomore guard Vince Kmiec (Palos Park, Ill./Sandburg) and senior guard Kevin Gillespie (Geneseo, Ill./Geneseo).

The Cardinals still had a chance to pull out the victory on their last possession, but Gillespie missed a 3-pointer as the final buzzer sounded.

Defensively, Scranton held North Central to just one point after Kmiec hit a jump shot to give the Cardinals a 61-53 lead with 3:26 left.

Lavelle also came up with another big play down the stretch, making a steal after Danzig converted a lay-up with 1:41 remaining to cut the Cardinal lead to two, 62-60.  Danzig then followed his own miss and scored on an offensive rebound to tie it up with 58 seconds left.  North Central then turned it over again—its 20th of the game—before Lavelle countered with his game-winning lay-up following a timeout.

Lavelle came off the bench and connected on 5 of 9 shots from the field and had four rebounds, two assists and two steals in 23 minutes of action.

The Royals will return to action tomorrow evening at 6:00 p.m. against Westfield State (Mass.).

Newspaper Box Score
SCRANTON 64, NORTH CENTRAL 62

SCRANTON (5-4)
Tim Lavelle 5-9 3-4 13; Tommy Morgan 3-9 5-5 11; Ross Danzig 4-6 2-2 11; Travis Farrell 4-10 1-1 10; Dan Hilferty 2-6 2-3 6; Mark Bevacqua 3-6 0-0 6; Matt Swaback 2-4 0-2 5; Luke Hawk 1-3 0-0 2; Edmond O'Connell 0-0 0-0 0; Nick Jaskula 0-0 0-0 0; Michael Barr 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 24-54 13-17 64.

NORTH CENTRAL (4-5)
GOLDTHREE, C.J. 6-13 10-16 24; GAMBLE, Landon 5-10 1-5 11; GILLESPIE, Kevin 2-5 5-5 10; KMIEC, Vince 5-12 0-0 10; TIKNIS, Aaron 1-4 3-5 5; ROSENBERG, Charlie 0-2 2-2 2; PEMBROOK, Kyle 0-0 0-0 0; ROURKE, Pat 0-0 0-0 0; BOYD, Mike 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 19-47 21-33 62.

Scranton......................   28   36  -   64
North Central.................   33   29  -   62
 
3-point goals--Scranton 3-10 (Ross Danzig 1-1; Travis Farrell 1-1; Matt Swaback 1-3; Michael Barr 0-1; Tommy Morgan 0-2; Tim Lavelle 0-2), North Central 3-13 (GOLDTHREE, C.J. 2-4; GILLESPIE, Kevin 1-4; KMIEC, Vince 0-4; BOYD, Mike 0-1). Fouled out--Scranton-Mark Bevacqua; Luke Hawk, North Central-None. Rebounds--Scranton 28 (Travis Farrell 6), North Central 36 (GOLDTHREE, C.J. 8). Assists--Scranton 8 (Travis Farrell 2; Tim Lavelle 2; Dan Hilferty 2), North Central 10 (TIKNIS, Aaron 3). Total fouls--Scranton
28, North Central 21. Technical fouls--Scranton-None, North Central-None  A-103