Scranton Lions Basketball Falls in Season Opener

By: Ross Turetsky, Penn State Scranton Athletics

On a Friday night in the electric city, the hometown Penn State Scranton Lions men's basketball team dropped their season opener to non-conference foe Bryant & Stratton-Cleveland by just six points, 85-79.

In the first half of play, the road warriors from Bryant & Stratton raced out to a 10 point advantage, 50-40, but in the second half, the Lions from Scranton showed a lot of grit and determination and roared right back and outscored their opponent by four points, 39-35, before falling by just six when the game's final buzzer sounded.

Scranton was led on offense by a hat trick of stars who put up stalwart double digit scoring performances in the battle, as freshman Zay Fowlks, Mario Olivieri, and senior guard Jaiden Wiggins set the pace for their squad. Fowlks tallied a game-high 26 points on 8-19 shooting from the field, went a solid 5-10 from three point land, and a perfect 5-5 from the charity stripe, to go along with his six rebounds and two assists during his stellar 39-minutes on the court. Olivieri scored a stalwart 25 points on a red hot 10-13 shooting from the field, made five of his seven free throws, to go along with a quartet of boards, and an assist in 37-minutes of action. Last but certainly not least, Wiggins recorded 16 points, was a near flawless 6-7 on his free throw attempts, nabbed six rebounds, an assist, and a steal to boot in his high quality 33-minutes of play.

Meanwhile, Bryant & Stratton also had a trio of players tally double digit scoring nights, as Tareeq Roper, James Moore, and Greg Thurman led the way offensively for their ball club. Roper had a team-high 16 points, shot a rock solid 5-8 from the field, made two out of his three attempts from long distance range, made all four of his free throws, grabbed seven boards, and a pair of assists in just 23-minutes on the floor. Moore accounted for 15 points on 5-7 shooting, made both of his shots from downtown, had a hat trick of rebounds, an assist, and added a steal for good measure in his 30-minutes of court time. Finally, Thurman scored 11 points on 4-6 shooting from the field, made his only attempt from beyond the arc and both of his shots from the charity stripe, to go along with his three boards, and an assist in 26-minutes of playing time.

Now first-year head coach Troy Jackson and his 0-1 Penn State Scranton Lions men's basketball squad will look to bounce back right away and capture their first victory of the young hoops season when they go on the road this Saturday afternoon to take on another non-conference foe Westmoreland County Community College, with tip-off scheduled for a 12 noon start time.