BALTIMORE, Md. – Four days ago, The University of Scranton men's basketball team overcame a 17-point first-half deficit to pick up a road win. On Saturday, the Royals made that seem like a walk in the park.
The Royals overcame a seven-point deficit with less than three minutes to go by scoring the final eight points of the game to stun Goucher on its home court, 78-77, in a Landmark Conference game on Saturday afternoon.
Senior forward Brendan Boken (South Pasadena, Calif./Loyola) made a pair of free throws with 3.3 seconds to play to complete the comeback. Goucher then had to go the length of the court and the buzzer-beating attempt to win was off the mark.
Boken led the way with 31 points and 15 rebounds, his third game of 30 or more points this season, his fourth straight double-double and his eighth of the season. He had 20 points in the second half, including eight in the final 6:24.
Scranton (11-3, 4-2 Landmark) trailed by four at halftime, 40-36, despite shooting 51.9 percent (14-for-27) in the opening 20 minutes. Goucher (4-10, 0-5 Landmark) was just as good, making 51.7 percent (15-for-29) in the first half, but the problem for the Royals is that the Gophers came out of the locker room shooting the ball much better in the second half.
Goucher hit eight of its first nine shots from the field after the break, six of which were 3-pointers. That red-hot shooting barrage gave the Gophers a 62-51 lead with 14:17 to play. When they scored five straight points a moment later, the lead was 67-54 with 12:13 left and Scranton found itself in trouble.
But the Royals responded, scoring seven straight to get back in the game at 67-61, but Goucher kept the pressure on, pushing its lead to 75-65 with just 5:36 left. From there, however, it was almost all Scranton.
Junior forward John Vitkus (Mahopac, N.Y./Mahopac) started the comeback with a jumper and a blocked shot, senior guard Marcus Thomas (Clarksburg, Md./Clarksburg) converted a three-point play and after a Goucher basket, Boken sunk a pair of free throws to cut the deficit to 77-72 with 2:28 left.
Scranton then chose to extend the game by fouling, and it paid off as the Gophers missed the front end of a bonus situation twice. When Vitkus scored on dunk off a feed from Boken, the Royals were within a basket at 77-74 with 1:03 left. Goucher again missed on the front end of a one-and-one, and Boken nailed a jumper with 44 seconds left to bring Scranton within one.
The Royals then had their best defensive moment of the game, forcing a shot clock violation to get possession back with 12 seconds left. After a timeout, Boken was fouled with 3.3 seconds left, and he hit both free throws. When Goucher's buzzer-beater was off the mark, the Royals had their second thrilling comeback in four days. On Tuesday, they overcame a 20-3 deficit to knock off Drew, 69-62, in Madison, N.J.
Vitkus had a big game before fouling out late, finishing with 15 points, a career-high eight assists, five rebounds, two steal and two blocks. Sophomore guard Kevin Doolan (Basking Ridge, N.J./Ridge) had 10 points, five rebounds, four assists and two steals. More importantly, he committed just one turnover, his ninth game this season with one or no turnovers.
The Royals matched their first-half shooting performance exactly in the second half, again going 14-for-27 (51.9 percent). More importantly, they committed just five second-half turnovers. For the game, they went 16-for-22 (72.7 percent) from the foul line, 6-for-17 (35.3 percent) from 3-point range, and won the rebounding battle, 34-26.
Goucher finished the day going 29-for-55 (52.7 percent) from the field, including a sizzling 12-for-22 (54.5 percent) from 3-point range. But they made just seven of 16 free throws (43.8 percent), including the three costly misses in the final 99 seconds.
The win keeps the Royals in a three-way tie for third with Catholic and Drew, all at 4-2 in Landmark Conference play. Susquehanna (5-0) and Juniata (4-1) hold down the top two spots.
The Royals will be back in action on Wednesday, Jan. 13, when they travel to Kings Point, N.Y. to take on Merchant Marine Academy at 7 p.m.
--ROYALS--