SCRANTON, Pa.- The Juniata men's basketball team couldn't quite keep pace in the second half as they lost on the road to Scranton, 64-54, Saturday afternoon.  

John Kelly (Philadelphia, Pa. / Roman Catholic High School) opened the scoring with a jumper off a pass from Nathan Markey (York, Pa. / Central York), the Royals came down and eventually scored on a layup after collecting two offensive rebounds. Cameron Keck (Waynesboro, Pa. / Waynesboro) setup Kohl Bernarding (Cochranton, Pa. / Cochranton H.S.) for a triple and following a stop, Marcus Hall (York, Pa. / Trinity) scored on a layup to make it 7-2 early.  

The teams continued to trade buckets, with Jake Holsopple (Duncansville, Pa. / Hollidaysburg) three momentarily giving JC a three-point advantage, but Scranton immediately answered with a three of their own. Holsopple continued his scoring burst with another three and a layup, followed by a Nick Rigby (Huntingdon, Pa. / Huntingdon H.S.) layup off a pass from Zach Engle (Millheim, Pa. / Penns Valley), put JC ahead by seven. Scranton cut the JC advantage to five with a bucket inside and down on the other end Engle found Keck for a three who drilled it while being fouled. His free throw increased the Eagle lead to nine with just under 11 minutes to go. 

Scranton hung around, and with 3:44 on the clock, managed to take push ahead for the first time at 31-30. Kelly scored inside off a pass from Keck to give JC the lead back, and a foul shot by Scranton tied things at 32. Back to back layups from Charles Somerville III (Hagerstown, Md. / St. Maria Goretti H.S.) and Engle gave Juniata a four-point lead, but the Royals scored the final five points of the half to head to the locker room with the lead.  

Kelly again opened the scoring with another jumper, and again it was Markey who assisted him. Keck drilled a three of a Hall pass, and Scranton quickly called timeout. 

Juniata called timeout with 15 minutes to go in the half as they found themselves down two, 44-42. The Royals pushed their lead to eight over the next few minutes, before Keck's three and two foul shots brought JC back within three.  

Juniata continued to battle, but couldn't close the gap in the final eight minutes.

Scranton shot 44.7% from the field to Juniata's 40.0%, and the hosts held a 35-25 edge on the glass. 

Juniata returns home to host Elizabethtown, Wednesday at 7:00.