Penn State Scranton Defeats Clarks Summit in Road Battle
By: Ross Turetsky, Penn State Athletics
On a Monday night road contest, the Penn State Scranton men's basketball squad came out victorious by the score of 82-73 over local non-conference school the Clarks Summit University Defenders. With this win, Scranton snaps their mini two game losing streak and sees their overall record improve to 6-15 and their conference record remains at 2-13 with only four games remaining this regular season.
In the first half of play, the road warrior Lions from Scranton jumped out to a nice seven point, 33-26, advantage heading into the break in the action. Things tightened up a little in the second half, as Scranton only outscored their opponent by a mere two points, 49-47, however, by the game's final whistle, they would hold onto their dominant nine point triumph.
Scranton had a well-balanced offensive attack throughout the night, as a whopping four of their players scored in double figures, as freshman guard Fhenyx Scutt, sophomore big man Marcus Delesline, senior forward Justin Craigg, and sophomore guard Jaiden Wiggins set the pace for their ball club. Scutt scored a team-high 22 points on a lights out 6-8 shooting from the field and connected on 3-4 of his shots from three point land, to go along with grabbing eight rebounds during his stellar stand-out performance. Delesline continued being a stalwart double-double machine with his 18 points and 13 boards, to go along with sinking in 2-4 of his shots from beyond the arc. Craigg tallied 16 points on an efficient 6-13 shooting from the field and drilled in a trio of his three point attempts, to go along with nabbing two rebounds in the contest. Last but certainly not least, Wiggins chipped in with a solid 12 points on 4-7 shooting from the field and made a near perfect 3-4 of his shots from downtown.
Meanwhile on the Clarks Summit side of things, they had two of their players score in double digits in the matchup, as sophomore guard Ashton West and junior forward Hunter Plantz led the way. West scored a game-high 28 points on a rock solid 10-17 shooting from the field and sunk in 2-4 of his shots from three point distance, to go along with his hat trick of rebounds. Plantz put up a quality 11 points and three boards in the contest. Finally, honorable mention goes to senior forward Garrett Plantz who just missed out on scoring in double figures, as he contributed nine points and six rebounds on the day.
Now head coach Chris Sload and his Penn State Scranton men's basketball squad will look to continue their victorious ways when they next face off against conference rival Penn State Schuylkill in their final road tilt of the season before finishing up the year on a three game home stand against league foes Penn State Lehigh Valley, Wilkes-Barre, and Brandywine. Tip-off for this Saturday afternoon's road matinee between Scranton and Schuylkill is scheduled for a 3pm start. Scranton will be looking to avenge their earlier recent season loss to Schuylkill from back on January 24th when they dropped a 91-57 home decision. Meanwhile, head coach Brian Deschaine and his Clarks Summit University ball club, who with this defeat to Scranton see their overall record fall to 5-16 and their conference record stay at 4-6, will now look to snap their three game losing skid when they next host Saint Elizabeth University this upcoming Wednesday night at 7pm.