SCRANTON, Pa.—As he has done all season long, junior guard Ross Danzig (Clarks Green, Pa./Abington Heights/Blair Academy-NJ) put The University of Scranton men's basketball team on his back and carried it to victory.
Danzig scored 17 of his game-high 25 points in the second half as the Royals broke away from a 3-point halftime lead en route to an 82-64 victory over the Merchant Marine Academy in the semifinals of the Landmark Conference tournament Wednesday at the Long Center.
Senior guard Tommy Morgan (Greenlawn, NY/Chaminade) and sophomore forward Brendan Boken (South Pasadena, Calif./Loyola) chipped in 15 points apiece and junior guard Justin Klingman (Clarks Summit, Pa./Abington Heights) added 14 as the Royals won their 13th straight game to improve to 23-3 overall and move into Saturday's championship game against the winner of #3 Catholic/#2 Susquehanna at home.
In the process, Morgan became the 41st player in Scranton history when he threw down a dunk off of a backdoor, alley-oop pass from Klingman with 1:04 remaining in the first half. He now has 1008 career points
Merchant Marine, which finishes its season with a 12-14 record, was led by senior guard/forward Zach Karczewski (Austin, Texas/Lake Travis) with 15 points and sophomore guards Preston Padgett (Leavenworth, Kansas/Leavenworth) and George Hatzioannides (Oakland Gardens, NY/St. Francis Preparatory) contributed 13 apiece.
The Mariners, who have defeated the Royals at the Long Center in each of their last two trips here, come out of the locker room and looked like they might do it again. They shot nearly 49 percent from the field in the first half, including over 83 percent from the 3-point arc, to trail by only three at intermission.
Scranton extended its perimeter defense and held the Mariners scoreless for nearly six minutes to open the second half, building up an 11-point advantage. Merchant Marine did manage to cut the lead to nine on three occasions—the last of which came on a 3-pointer by Padgett with five minutes remaining—before Morgan, Danzig and Klingman combined for 10 points to give Scranton a comfortable 16-point lead with 2:31 left.
Throughout much of the second half, the Mariners could not stop Danzig from getting to the rim and Boken magnified their problems by getting their two main front-court players—senior Nick Sergio (Patchogue, NY/Patchogue-Medford) and sophomore Scott Dennin (Gilbertsville, Pa./Boyertown)—into foul trouble, each of whom fouled out.
Danzig also finished with nine rebounds, including a key offensive rebound on a missed free throw that resulted in the Royals keeping possession and leading to two free throws by Klingman to keep Scranton's lead at 15 points with 3:16 left .His 25 points tonight gives him 1361 for his career, which is 18th on the Royals' all-time list. He also dished out two assists tonight to bring his season total to 100 and joins Morgan (107) as the first players in Scranton history to hand out 100 assists since Dan Loftus (123) and Al Callejas (100) did it in 2001.
The Royals also got significant contributions from sophomore forward Marcus Thomas (Clarksburg, Md./Clarksburg), who came off the bench and had seven points, three rebounds, and three steals in 17 minutes of action.
Scranton, the number two team in the Mid-Atlantic region, has now advanced to the Landmark championship game for the sixth time in the league's seven-year history, winning league titles in 2008, 2009, 2011, and 2012.
The Royals' current 13-game winning streak is their longest under 13th-year head coach Carl Danzig, father of Royal junior guard Ross Danzig.