Scranton Lions Drop Road Contest at Penn State Beaver

By: Ross Turetsky, Penn State Scranton Athletics

On Saturday afternoon, the visiting Penn State Scranton Lions men's basketball team dropped a hard fought eight point, 74-66, road battle with conference rival Penn State Beaver. With the defeat, Scranton sees their overall record move to 4-9 and they are 0-6 in their all-important league play schedule.

The Lions from Beaver jumped out to a fast start and took an 8 point, 40-32, advantage heading into the half-time break in the action. However in the second half of play, the Scranton Lions roared right back and were deadlocked at 34 apiece before their valiant comeback attempt fell a little short, as Beaver captured the eight point home triumph when the game's final buzzer sounded.

Scranton had the dynamic upperclassmen duo of senior guard Macio Robinson and junior big man Marcus Delesline score in double figures during the festivities and set the pace offensively for their squad. Robinson scored a team-high 17 points on 6-15 shooting from the field, connected on four of his shots from downtown, had a pair of rebounds, and a steal on defense while playing all 40-minutes of the ball game. Last but certainly not least, Delesline also tallied 17 points on a red hot 7-10 shooting from the floor, grabbed six boards, four assists, and added a steal for good measure in his 31-minutes of stalwart game action.

Meanwhile, Beaver had a quartet of players put up impressive double digit scoring performances in the matinee, as Matt Brown, Alex Green, Nick Gjergji, and Chris Green led the way for their ball club. Brown notched a double-double with his game-high 19 points and 17 rebounds, shot a highly efficient 7-11 from the field, made his only three point attempt, went 4-4 from the charity stripe, and had a trio of assists in his 40-minutes on the court. Green had 18 points, made a three pointer, collected seven boards, five steals, and had an assist to boot. Gjergji came off the bench and provided a nice spark for his team in his top notch 35 minutes of work, as he put up 12 points on 4-6 shooting, was a lethal 3-5 from beyond the arc, made his only free throw, had a hat trick of rebounds, and an assist. Finally, Green put up 10 points on 4-10 shooting from the field, was a perfect 2-2 from the foul line, had a trio of boards, and a couple of steals on defense in his 25-minutes of playing time.

Now first-year head coach Michael Foder and his 4-9 Penn State Scranton Lions men's basketball squad will look to bounce back and snap their mini three game losing streak and capture their first crucial conference victory of the season when they return from their month long holiday and end of the semester break when they next host league foe Penn State Greater Allegheny to kick-off their 2024 new year schedule on Friday night, January 12^th, with a tip-off time slated for an 8pm prime time start.