NOVEMBER 26, 2016

KING'S MEN'S BASKETBALL FALLS TO SCRANTON 79-70 IN CROSS COUNTY CHALLENGER OPENER

WILKES-BARRE – The King's College men's basketball fell behind by 15 points in the first half but the University of Scranton was able to weather a second-half comeback bid by the Monarchs to hold on for a 79-70 victory in the opening round of the sixth annual Cross County Challenge Saturday at the Wilkes University Marts Center.

With the win, Scranton improved to 4-0 while King's slipped to 3-2.

King's trailed 17-15 with 11:38 remaining in the first half but Scranton used a key 25-12 run over the next 7:30 to build a 42-27 lead with 4:08 left in the opening stanza.  The Monarchs outscored Scranton 9-6 the rests of the way to trail 48-36 at the break.

King's came out of the locker room and used a quick 7-0 spurt to climb to within 48-43 thanks to five points from Connor Callejas and a bucket by John Fazzini. Scranton countered with a 7-0 surge of its own and upped the lead to 55-43 after a three-pointer by Brandon Feinberg with 16:07 to play.

King's continued to chip away and came to within 62-56 after a short jumper by Andrew Hudak at the 10:21 mark. But Scranton answered again with a 6-0 run after a traditional three-point play by Kevin Doolan, and a lay-up and foul shot from John Vinkus with 8:10 remaining to push the Royal lead to 69-56.

The Monarchs would not fold, however, and answered with a 10-0 run to trim the score to 69-66 with 3:47 left thanks to a three-pointer from John Fazzini, a driving lay-up from Callejas, and one-of-two free throws from Chris Fazzini.

After a Scranton miss, King's had the opportunity to cut away more of the Scranton lead, but after hitting an inside bucket, Hudak was whistled for an offensive foul, wiping away the basket.  The Royals capitalized with eight straight points, including six from the foul line to extend the lead to 77-66 with 0:59 on the clock. 

King's managed to cut the score to 77-70 with 0:27 remaining on buckets from Dan Rutecki and Callejas. But Scranton canned two more foul shots to seal the win.

Callejas led King's with 18 points, including a trio of three-pointers. Rutecki followed with 14 points, eight rebounds, and three assists while John Fazzini tallied 12 points with three shots from down town.

Scranton was led by Vitkus with 23 points and 14 rebounds while Kyle DeVerna followed with 17 points.

Scranton shot 55.1 (27-49) percent from the floor compared to 42.4 (25-59) for the Monarchs.

King's will play Marywood Sunday at 1:00 p.m. at Wilkes.