HUNTINGDON, Pa.- Juniata faced one of its toughest tasks of the young season as it faced defending Landmark Champion Scranton on Saturday afternoon at Memorial Gym. The Eagles led by as much as 13 points and had to hold off a late Royals rally in the end as they won 54-52 to remained undefeated at 7-0. Juniata is also 2-0 in conference.
The Eagles played tough defense throughout the contest but none was tighter than in the first half where they held the Royals to 35% shooting overall (7-of-20) and 28.6% (2-of-7) from beyond the three-point arc. The beginning of the first half was back and forth until JC put up a 7-0 run after trailing 8-7 at 14:09 to go ahead 14-8 with 11:23 on the game clock.
Scranton was able to get to within one point, 16-14, after Kevin Doolan drained a three-point shot at 8:18. The Eagles answered with a layup and jumper by Marcus Lee (Carrolltown, Pa./Bishop Carroll) and a layup from Dennis Fisher (Bellefonte, Pa./Bald Eagle Area) to restore their seven-point advantage. The last basket of the half came on a layup from Damon Rickens (Altoona, Pa./Bishop Guilfoyle HS) with 2:26 remaining as Juniata went into the locker room with a 28-21 lead.
A 12-6 Juniata run to start out the second half gave the Eagles their biggest lead all day, 40-27, with 11:23 showing on the clock. Scranton came roaring back with a 10-2 run that cut the Juniata lead to five points, 42-37, with 8:07 left to play.
The Eagles quickly restored their lead to double digits with a layup from Lee and a traditional three-point play from Kyle Koehler (Chester Springs, Pa./Devon Prep) to go up 47-37 with 7:20 left. It was still a 10-point JC advantage with 5:32 on the clock when the Royals rattled off a 15-6 run that whittled the lead to one point, 53-52 with 23 seconds left.
A foul by Ethan Danzig put Koehler on the line. He made the first but missed the second as Brendan Boken collected the rebound. Doolan missed the layup as time winded down and in the scrum under the basket, a foul was called on Lee that put Doolan on the line to potentially tie the game with two-tenths of a second left. Doolan, however, missed his first attempt and purposely was off on the second to allow the Royals another opportunity but time expired as the Eagles celebrated the win.
Lee had a nearly identical stat line to his performance against Elizabethtown as he put up 21 points on 10-of-17 shooting and pulled down nine rebounds. Seth Brewer (Lancaster, Pa./Manheim Township) finished with six points, five rebounds, three assists, two steals, and a blocked shot.
The Juniata bench outscored the Scranton bench 13-6. Brandon Martinazzi (Cresson, Pa./Bishop Carroll) led with eight points in 20 minutes of playing time.
The Eagles outrebounded the Royals 33-25. Juniata also had nine second chance points to Scranton's zero. Commenting on the rebound advantage, head coach Greg Curley said, "You earn your opportunities and you earn your breaks and I think we definitely did that today."
Curley praised his team's defense effort and admitted that his players were tired late in the game when the Royals came back. Overall, he said, "I'm really proud of the effort and I thought everyone that came in had great energy. These guys are ready. I think they are hungry. I think they want to be good and they want to put the work in."
The Eagles will host the Doc Greene Tournament next weekend. Juniata will play Penn State York at 7:00 p.m., which is preceded by Randolph and Carnegie Mellon at 5 p.m.
