SCRANTON, Pa.- The Juniata men's basketball team started Landmark Conference play on Saturday against Scranton. The Royals used a 12-2 run in the second half to break open a close game as they won 78-61 at the John Long Center. The loss puts Juniata at 3-2 overall and 0-1 in the LC while Scranton is 5-1 and 1-0 in the conference.
Scranton jumped out to a 7-0 lead in the opening minutes of the first half. JC worked its way back with buckets by Brandon Martinazzi (Cresson, Pa./Bishop Carroll) and Marcus Lee (Carrolltown, Pa./Bishop Carroll) to cut the advantage to 7-4. The Royals increased their lead to 10-4 but a trey by Seth Brewer (Lancaster, Pa./Manheim Township) knocked the lead back to three points. An Ethan Danzig three-point shot brought the advantage back up to six. A 9-0 Juniata run, capped by a three-pointer from Jacob Holsopple (Hollidaysburg, Pa./Hollidaysburg) gave Juniata its first lead of the afternoon, 16-13, with 10:34 showing on the game clock.
A 7-0 Royals run gave the lead back to the home team but the Eagles countered with a 9-3 run that gave them a 25-23 advantage at 3:46. After the Royals regained the lead, a layup from Lee with 2:10 remaining in the half knotted the score at 27-27. The game would stay that way until Danzig scored with two seconds remaining to give Scranton a 29-27 lead at halftime.
Scranton jumped on the Eagles right away early in the second half with two straight baskets to go ahead 34-27. Juniata would keep the score within distance as a Martinazzi jumper at 15:46 got it to within two points, 39-37. The Royals put some distance between themselves and the Eagles with a 10-0 run to lead 49-37 with 13:51 to play.
Back-to-back baskets from Brewer got the Eagles to 51-43 with 11:28 remaining. That would be as close as JC could get as the Royals used a 16-6 run that spanned nearly five minutes of game time to pull away.
Lee led the Eagles with 19 points on 9-of-14 shooting and grabbed six rebounds. Martinazzi added 14 points and shot 7-of-10 from the floor with five rebounds. Brewer had 13 points, three steals, and two assists. Damon Rickens (Altoona, Pa./Bishop Guilfoyle) led the team with seven rebounds and chipped in five points, three steals, and two assists.
Despite the score, Juniata outshot Scranton percentage-wise 52.8%-48.4%. For the first time this season, the Eagles did not go to the free throw line while the Royals were 8-of-11 (72.7%) from the charity stripe. Rebounds favored the Royals, 34-25. Scranton led in points off of turnovers 16-11, second chance points 11-0, and bench points 16-6.
Juniata has little time to reflect as it returns to the court this Monday to face Carnegie Mellon. Tip-off time from Memorial Gymnasium with be at 7:00 p.m.