The University of Scranton kept its hopes for the number one seed alive in the upcoming Freedom Conference tournament by holding off Lycoming College, 65-58, Wednesday evening at Lamade Gymnasium.
Behind 18 points by junior guard Randy Arnold (Doylestown, Pa./Central Bucks West) and 15 from sophomore forward Paul Biagioli (Waverly, Pa./Abington Heights), the Royals won their third straight game to improve to 19-5 overall and move into a tie with King’s College for first-place in the Freedom Conference with a 10-3 league mark. The Monarchs, however, control their own destiny and can wrap-up the number one seed with a victory at home on Saturday against FDU-Florham.
The only sure thing that tonight’s win did was guarantee that the Royals can finish as no worse than the number three seed. If Scranton loses Saturday and FDU-Florham wins, King’s is still the number one seed, FDU-Florham would be second, Scranton third and DeSales fourth. If Scranton and FDU-Florham win, the Royals are the top seed, King’s second, FDU-Florham third and DeSales fourth. If Scranton and FDU-Florham lose Saturday, King’s is top seed, Scranton second, DeSales third and FDU-Florham fourth.
It appeared early as if the Royals might have an easy time of it. With Arnold scoring 14 first-half points by connecting on all five of his shot attempts, Scranton built up a 37-24 halftime lead. Biagioli added eight points and sophomore forward Paul Hawk (Audubon, Pa./Methacton) seven as the Royals connected on nearly 47 percent of their field goal attempts. The Warriors, on the other hand, shot only 30 percent from the field and were guilty of 11 turnovers in the opening 20 minutes of play.
Junior guard Kevin Morris (Camp Hill, Pa./Trinity) and the rest of the Warriors finally got untracked in the second-half by connecting on nearly 55 percent of their shot attempts to whittle away at the Scranton lead. Morris, who scored 14 second-half points, eventually tied the game with a 3-pointer that capped off a 16-6 spurt during a seven-minute span as Lycoming tied the game at 56-56 with 2:11 left.
Freshman guard Dan O’Connell (Somers, N.Y./Kennedy Catholic) scored on a lay-up and Biagioli buried a 3-pointer after a Warrior miss to regain the lead for good, 61-56, with 1:17 left. Sophomore guard Ryan FitzPatrick (Berwyn, Pa./Conestoga) and O’Connell each made a pair of free throws in the final 20 seconds to ice the game. The Royals also got a big lift of the bench from senior guard Darren Cannon (Paupack, Pa./Wallenpaupack Area), who finished with nine points on 3 of 4 shooting from beyond the 3-point arc, and junior guard James Powell (Miami, Fla./Palmetto), who made three steals in the second-half as the Warriors were mounting their come back. The loss dropped Lycoming to 12-12 overall and 5-8 in league play.
Arnold was also credited with three steals, which moved him ahead of Drew Morano (197 steals, 1988-1992) for the number one spot on the Royals’ all-time list with 199. He will enter Saturday’s game at DeSales needing only five points to become the 35th player in Scranton history to score 1000 career points.
THE UNIVERSITY OF SCRANTON (19-5/10-3 Freedom) Arnold, Randy 7-10 2-2 18; Biagioli, Paul 5-10 2-2 15; Cannon, Darren 3-4 0-0 9; Hawk, Paul 2-7 2-2 7; Bicknell, Tom 1-6 5-6 7; FitzPatrick, Ryan 1-8 2-2 5; O'Connell, Dan 1-2 2-2 4; Fuller, Brendan 0-0 0-0 0; Powell, James 0-2 0-0 0. Totals 20-49 15-16 65. LYCOMING COLLEGE (12-12/5-8 Freedom) Kevin Morris 5-11 7-9 20; Jemayne Nowlin 3-8 2-3 8; Rickey Varnell 3-6 0-0 6; Anthony Watson 3-5 0-2 6; David Wilson 2-6 2-2 6; Greg Sye 1-3 2-4 4; Matt McGair 1-2 2-2 4; James Oberlies 1-1 1-2 4; Trevor Whaley 0-0 0-0 0; Brandon Johnson 0-1 0-0 0; Davon Winfrey 0-0 0-0 0; Billy Goodell 0-2 0-0 0. Totals 19-45 16-24 58. University of Scranton........ 37 28 - 65 Lycoming College Men.......... 24 34 - 58