YORK, Pa. – The Ursinus Men's Basketball team opened at the York Spartan Classic by taking on Scranton on Friday evening.
 
 
Sophomore Jamie Murphy led the Bears with 23 points on 9-of-15 shooting and just missed a double-double with nine rebounds. Senior Mohamed Toure added 10 points and seven rebounds while first-year Jasper Buck recorded 12 points after going 4-of-7 from three-point range off the bench.
 
 
After the teams traded points in the opening minutes, it was the Bears that had the first breakthrough by taking a 13-6 lead at the 14:14-mark of the first half. Scranton used a 7-2 burst to get within two points at 15-13 and eventually made it a one-point game at 20-19 with 7:20 left in the first half. The Bears went up six points at 28-22 with 5:09 left in the first half before the Royals closed the first half out on a 10-4 run to leave the scored tied at the half. The teams went back-and-forth to start the second half before the Royals broke through halfway through and built a double-digit lead.
 
 
The Bears shot 46.6 percent (27-of-58) from the field and just 23.8 percent (5-of-21) from three-point range. Ursinus went just 64.3 percent (18-of-28) from the free throw line and scored 21 points off 12 Royals turnovers. Scranton held a slight 34-30 rebounding advantage.
 
 
The Bears return to action tomorrow, December 20^th as they will take on the host York at 4:00 p.m.