Scranton Lions Repeat as Tournament Champions

By: Ross Turetsky, Penn State Scranton Athletics

DUNMORE, Pa - On Saturday night, the Penn State Scranton Lions men's basketball squad defended their tip-off tournament championship by defeating non-conference foe Bucks County Community College in the title game for the second straight season, this time a 98-94 hard fought triumph to bring home the trophy. With this victory, Scranton improves their overall record to 3-2 and they are a perfect 3-0 on their home floor to kick-off the young hoops season.

The hometown Lions from Scranton took a five point, 47-42, advantage heading into the half-time break in the action. Then in the contest's final 20-minutes, the road warriors from Bucks County played tough and outscored the Lions by a mere point, 52-51, before Scranton held on for the nail-biter four point win when the game's final buzzer sounded.

Scranton had an impressive five players score in double digits on the day, as senior guard Macio Robinson, junior big man Marcus Delesline, sophomore Fhenyx Scutt, fellow sophomore Gary Natale Jr., and junior Jaiden Wiggins set the pace for their ball club. Robinson scored a team-high 25 points on a solid 9-20 shooting from the field, connecting on a quartet of his attempts from downtown, to go along with his trio of rebounds, hat trick of assists, and a steal to boot. Delesline notched another double-double with his stalwart 22 points and 11 boards, on a highly efficient 10-17 shooting from the field, to go along with his pair of assists, and a steal. Scutt tallied a well-rounded ball game just missing a triple-double with his 14 points, made a three pointer, had nine assists, eight rebounds, and three steals. Natale Jr. came off the bench and provided a nice spark for his squad, putting up 13 points, shooting a lethal 4-8 from three point range, to go along with a couple of assists, and a steal. Last but certainly not least, Wiggins had 12 points, five boards, five steals, four assists, and a block during the festivities.

Meanwhile, Bucks County had four players post double figure scoring performances, as Elijah Bryant, Jaquis Heath, Brendan O'Reilly, and Jaden Fogg led the way offensively. Bryant scored a game-high 27 points, shooting a red hot 5-9 from beyond the arc, to go along with his four steals on defense, two assists, and a rebound. Heath had 20 points on a quality 9-16 shooting from the field, connecting on a pair of his three point attempts, to go along with eight boards, and two blocks. O'Reilly put up 19 points, hit on a trio of shots from long range, to go along with his four rebounds, pair of assists, and a steal. Finally, Fogg had 11 points on 4-7 shooting, to go along with his seven boards, hat trick of assists, a steal, and a block.

Now first-year head coach Michael Foder and his 3-2 Penn State Scranton men's basketball squad will look to make it three straight wins in a row when they host local non-conference foe King's College this Tuesday night with tip-off scheduled for an 8pm prime time start.