Scranton Lions Drop an Overtime Heart Breaker

By: Ross Turetsky, Penn State Scranton Athletics

On Saturday afternoon, the visiting Penn State Scranton Lions men's basketball team lost a hard fought 101-87 overtime road decision to conference foe Penn State New Kensington. With the defeat, Scranton sees their overall record move to 3-5 and they are 0-2 in their all-important league play schedule.

In a highly competitive back-and-forth close contest, New Kensington had a slim one point, 35-34, advantage heading into the half-time break in the action. In the second half of play, the Scranton Lions roared right back and outscored their opponent by a point, 46-45, to force the decisive overtime session. However, in overtime New Kensington seized control of the game and never looked back, outscoring Scranton by 14 points, 21-7, to capture the 14 point home triumph when the game's final buzzer sounded.

Scranton had a whopping five players score in double figures during the festivities, as junior big man Marcuse Delesline, senior guard Macio Robinson, junior guard Jaiden Wiggins, sophomore guard Fhenyx Scutt, and fellow sophomore big man Chase Medina set the pace offensively for their ball club. Delesline notched another double-double scoring a game-high 29 points and grabbed 14 rebounds, shooting a highly efficient 13-20 from the floor, making his only three point attempt, to go along with a pair of assists, and a steal in his stellar 35-minutes of game action. Robinson tallied 20 points, making 4-10 of his shots from beyond the arc, to go along with a couple of assists, a rebound, and a steal to boot. Wiggins came off the bench and provided a nice spark for his team in his 33-minutes on the court, recording a double-double with his 12 points and 14 boards, making one shot from downtown, and going a near flawless 5-6 from the charity stripe, to go along with an assist, and a steal. Scutt just missed out on a near triple-double performance, with his solid 11 points, eight rebounds, and eight assists, had a steal, and made a pair of shots from three point land. Last but certainly not least, Medina scored 10 points, made a three pointer, had five boards, a couple of steals, and a block in his 23-minutes on the floor.

Meanwhile, New Kensington also had an impressive five players score in double digits in the matinee, as junior guard Shyheim Flanagan, junior forward Benjamin Cunningham, junior guard Aubrey Feaster II, sophomore guard Jadyn Benson, and junior guard Andre Hayes led the way offensively for their squad. Flanagan scored a team-high 23 points, went 1-3 shooting from beyond the arc, had a trio of steals, a pair of rebounds, and a couple of assists in his quality 31-minutes of play. Cunningham recorded a double-double with his 22 points and 15 boards, shooting a red hot 11-15 from the field, to along with a hat trick of blocks, three steals, and an assist. Feaster II tallied 20 points on 7-13 shooting from the floor, going a lethal 4-8 from three point land, and had four rebounds in the battle. Benson came off the bench and provided a much needed spark for his club in his 27-minutes on the court, notching a double-double with his 14 points and 10 boards, made a three pointer, had a pair of blocks, two assists, and a steal. Finally, Hayes also came off the bench and did a solid job in his 23-minutes on the floor, scoring 11 points, going a near perfect 9-10 from the free throw line, to go along with his stingy four steals on defense, a trio of assists, and a rebound.

Now first-year head coach Michael Foder and his 3-5 Penn State Scranton Lions men's basketball squad will look to bounce back and snap their mini three game losing streak after the Thanksgiving holiday break when they next go on the road to take on conference rival Penn State Brandywine on Tuesday, November 28^th, with tip-off scheduled for an 8pm prime time start.