LAS VEGAS, Nev.—On a team filled with battle-tested veterans, it was a freshman Kevin Doolan (Basking Ridge, NJ/Ridge) who came up with the clutch plays in The University of Scranton's 64-61 victory over Hanover College (Indiana) in the D3hoops.com Classic Monday evening at the South Point Arena.

Doolan scored a season-high 20 points, including three free throws in the final 18 seconds of play, as the Royals improved to 7-2 on the season.  Scranton also received 19 points from senior guard Ross Danzig (Clarks Green, Pa./Abington Heights/Blair Academy-NJ) and 16 from junior forward Brendan Boken (South Pasadena, Calif./Loyola).

Hanover, now 5-4, was led by sophomore forward V.J. Billups (Jeffersonville, Ind./Jeffersonville) with 18 points and freshman forward Wes McKinney (Batesville, Ind./Batesville) and junior forward Michael Van Kleunen (Mason, Ohio/Mason) chipped in 14 and 12 points, respectively.

Doolan, whose previous high was a 15-point effort in last night's 79-74 loss to Husson (Maine), hit a 3-pointer with 6:12 remaining to cut a 4-point Hanover lead to one, then put the Royals ahead for good with a traditional 3-point play moments later after Boken came up with a steal.  For the game, Doolan connected on 7 of 8 shots from the field and finished with 2 assists and no turnovers in 38 minutes of action.

McKinney and Billups combined for 18 points in the first half as Hanover settled down after falling behind 7-0 early and held Scranton to just 6 points over the final 6:36 to open up a 33-30 lead by intermission.   The Panthers continued to control the tempo throughout the second half and built up a 52-48 lead with 7:35 remaining.

Danzig came through with his own heroics after Doolan gave the Royals the lead for good with 5:30 remaining.  He scored five straight points—including a traditional 3-point play with 4:00 left—to give Scranton a 59-53 lead before the Panthers closed the gap to one, 62-61, with nine seconds remaining on a lay-up by Van Kleunen. Doolan then calmly sank two free throws with seven seconds left before Billups missed a potential game-tying 3-pointer at the buzzer.

The Royals will return to action this Friday, January 2, against King's College in the opening round of the Cross County Challenge at Scandlon Gymnasium in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, beginning at 8:00 p.m.