Drew battled the Scranton Royals to end, but was stung by a handful of big plays by the guests in a 61-56 loss. The Rangers came back from deficits of nine and eight in the second half to cut the lead to three points with seconds remaining before the Royals collected a hard fought Landmark Conference victory. Terrell Brown had 19 points for the Rangers while Zach Ashworth led all scorers with 25. The Rangers fall to 2-8 overall, 0-2 in the Landmark Conference while Scranton improves to 8-5, 2-0.
The first ten minutes were the kind of tight, physical battle one would expect from a January conference contest. The game was tied seven times in the first ten minutes with neither team going up by more than three points. With the score tied at 14-14 with 9:37 left, the Royals went on the first key run of the game. Four different Royals scored in a 9-0 run to give the guests a 23-14 lead. Drew cut that advantage back down to three on a three-point play by Brown and a three by Kyle Joyce before, eventually, going into the half trailing by just a trio of points thanks to Brown's late layup, 27-24.
In the second half, the Rangers were quickly down by nine as Ashworth opened the half with back-to-back threes to make it 33-24. Brown and Eli Londo traded layups to make it 35-26 which would mark the Royals' largest lead of the game.
Drew then put together a 13-3 run that would give it a one point lead. McNeil Wrice drilled a three before Kyle Joyce scored from Mike Mayes' assist. After Mayes hit two of three free throws, the Royals hit back through Ashworth and a free throw from Matt FitzPatrick. Mayes would finish off the run with three highlight reel buckets. His first was a quick drive to the right through the Royal defense, his second an acrobatic floating jumper and the third a flying reverse layup from Joyce's assist to put Drew up 39-38.
Scranton tied the game then pulled ahead before Drew tied it up at 41-41 with 9:53 left to play. After three free throws put the Royals up 44-41, Lucas Levenson's layup cut it to one point. Zach Ashworth hit the first of three back-breaking three pointers to regain a 47-43 lead. Matt Swabach followed with a jumper off Ashworth's assist and, after Brown's tough layup, Swabach's three-point play gave Scranton a six point lead with 3:50 left to play.
Drew seemed to have something going when the Royals were forced to foul McNeil Wrice on the break, but after Wrice hit one of two free throws, Ashworth drilled a clutch three at the 2:45 mark to hand the Royals a 55-47 lead. A patient possession by the Rangers worked out well as Joe Horvath knocked down a triple from the corner for the teams to enter the final two minutes at 55-50. Both teams followed with missed layups in the next 50 seconds before a scrum on the floor for a loose ball ended with Brown clutching possession and calling for timeout. After the TO, Mike Mayes' driving layup brought Drew to within three points 55-52. Unfortunately, Ashworth drilled another three as the shot clock wound down with just 23 seconds to play. Terrell Brown breezed through the Scranton defense for a quick two with 17 seconds left.
After a timeout, the Rangers fouled and Ashworth hit just one of two, 59-54. Brown was able to collect an offensive rebound and put in a layup, but with only four seconds left. Eli Londo hit two clutch free throws with three seconds remaining allowing Scranton to sneak out of Baldwin Gym with the win, 61-56.
Both teams took 50 shots with Drew hitting 22 to the Royals 20, though Scranton hit one more three pointer (5-4) with Ashworth making all of them. Drew out-rebounded the Royals 32-31 and committed just three more turnovers, but Scranton hit 16-24 from the foul line while Drew made just 8-17.
Brown had 19 points and nine rebounds. Mayes added 14 points and five assists while Horvath led the scorers off the bench with six points. Ashworth had 25 including five threes to go with six rebounds and four assists. Eli Londo had 13 points and seven rebounds.
Drew will look for its first Landmark Conference win of the season when it hosts Moravian tomorrow at 4 pm. Something has got to give as both squads are 0-2 in league play.
Newspaper Box Score
Scranton Royals vs Drew Rangers
1/8/10 7:30 pm at Baldwin Gym, Madison, NJ
At Baldwin Gym, Madison, NJ
Scranton 61, DREW RANGERS 56
SCRMBB10 (8-5, 2-0)
Zach Ashworth 7-14 6-8 25; Eli Londo 5-16 3-4 13; Dan O'Connell 2-5 5-6 9;
Travis Farrell 3-7 0-1 6; Matt Swaback 2-2 1-2 5; Anthony Carlino 1-1 0-0 2
Matt FitzPatrick 0-0 1-3 1; Andrew Wynne 0-1 0-0 0; Tim Lavelle 0-1 0-0 0;
Dan Hilferty 0-3 0-0 0. Totals 20-50 16-24 61.
DREW RANGERS (2-8, 0-2)
Terrell Brown 8-14 3-5 19; Mike Mayes 6-11 2-6 14; McNeil Wrice 2-4 2-4 7;
Joe Horvath 2-5 0-0 6; Kyle Joyce 2-10 0-0 5; Mehmet Onen 1-1 1-2 3; Lucas
Levenson 1-2 0-0 2; Travis DeNapoli 0-2 0-0 0; Luke Mullaney 0-0 0-0 0; Evan
Elberg 0-1 0-0 0; Pat Dorsey 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 22-50 8-17 56.
SCRMBB10...................... 27 34 - 61
Drew Rangers.................. 24 32 - 56
3-point goals--SCRMBB10 5-14 (Zach Ashworth 5-7; Eli Londo 0-1; Dan
O'Connell 0-2; Travis Farrell 0-2; Tim Lavelle 0-1; Dan Hilferty 0-1), Drew
Rangers 4-16 (Joe Horvath 2-4; McNeil Wrice 1-3; Kyle Joyce 1-7; Travis
DeNapoli 0-2). Fouled out--SCRMBB10-None, Drew Rangers-None.
Rebounds--SCRMBB10 31 (Eli Londo 7; Dan O'Connell 7), Drew Rangers 32
(Terrell Brown 9). Assists--SCRMBB10 9 (Zach Ashworth 4), Drew Rangrs 10
(Mike Mayes 5). Total fouls--SCRMBB10 16, Drew Rangers 19. Technical
fouls--SCRMBB10-None, Drew Rangers-None. A-137
