Photos by Gabby Zulak
By Marquis Frias, Assistant Sports Editor
The men’s basketball team defeated King’s College 96-60 in the first game of the Mike Scheib Memorial Tournament on Friday at O.W. Houts Gymnasium.
The tournament honors 1978 Susquehanna graduate Mike Scheib, who recently passed away this past summer.
During his time at SU, Scheib was an exceptional basketball player, winning the prestigious Naismith Award in 1978, an award given to the best college basketball player in the nation under six feet tall across all NCAA divisions. Scheib was also inducted into the Susquehanna Athletic Hall of Fame in 1983.
The first half of the home opener began with the two teams in a defensive battle. With the River Hawks (2-0) leading 12-7 after six minutes, they would go on a 18-4 run over the next seven minutes.
The run featured senior Billy Anderson scoring seven points and junior AJ Lomax hitting two 3-pointers.
The run gave Susquehanna a 30-11 lead, which ignited the offense for the rest of the first half as they made six of their last 10 3-pointers before halftime.
In the first half, Susquehanna shot 51% from the field while also shooting an even 50% from three. The River Hawks’ hot shooting earned them a 47-25 lead going into the locker rooms.
In the first couple minutes after the break, the two teams traded points but Susquehanna’s large lead was too large for the Monarchs (1-2) to overcome. 
In the final 10 minutes, the River Hawks defensively held King’s to only shooting 36% from the field and 22% from deep. The second half also saw junior Ian Robinson scoring 13 points.
“We have been working since late August… I think this is just how hard work shows,” Robinson said.
Anderson led the game in scoring with 18 points while also grabbing three boards and dishing out two assists. Lomax scored a career-high 13 points, going 3-4 from behind the arc.
“I was just playing off my teammates,” Lomax said. “We played around the post a lot and the post players created a lot of shots for me and I hit my shots today.” 
The River Hawks as a team finished shooting 50% from the field while hitting 18 triples, out-rebounding King’s 45-32 and forcing 17 turnovers.
The 26-point win was also the highest point margin in a home opener for Susquehanna since 2012, when the River Hawks defeated Penn Tech 104-50.
The River Hawks will take on York (Pa.) in the tournament’s championship game at 3 p.m. Saturday. It will be a homecoming for Cooper Haberern, who joined York as a grad transfer from SU in the portal.