Meredith Mesaris	Lindsay Fluehr

Box score

CENTER VALLEY, Pa. – A lengthy scoring drought and cold second-half shooting doomed The University of Scranton women's basketball team in a 70-46 defeat to DeSales in Billera Hall on Saturday afternoon.

The Lady Royals (6-2) went nearly 13 minutes spanning the first and second halves without a field goal while watching DeSales (4-4) turn a three-point deficit into a 17-point lead. Scranton scored just 22 points in the second half while shooting 10 percent (3-for-30) from the field in the final 20 minutes.

Sophomore forward Meredith Mesaris (Fairfax, Va./Fairfax) scored a team-high 16 points and had five rebounds in the loss. Sophomore guard Lindsay Fluehr (Bensalem, Pa./Nazareth Academy) added 10 points and seven rebounds as the Lady Royals shot just 23.1 percent (12-for-52) from the field while suffering their second straight defeat.

Scranton held a 24-21 lead with 6:14 to play in the first half after junior guard Alison Sweeney (Wall, N.J./Saint Rose) hit back-to-back 3-pointers. But the Lady Royals went cold as the Bulldogs scored the final 10 points of the half to take a seven-point lead into the break.

The cold spell continued after the break for Scranton as DeSales stretched the lead to 37-24 before Mesaris hit a pair of free throws with 17:07 to play. It was nearly four more minutes before the Lady Royals made a field goal, as a 3-pointer by senior guard Katherine Torto (Binghamton, N.Y./Seton Catholic Central) with 13:22 to play stopped a 23-3 run by DeSales.

Torto's triple cut Scranton's deficit to 14 at 44-30, but DeSales scored the next seven points to put the game away.

Scranton held a 43-37 edge in rebounding, but committed 30 turnovers to just 16 by DeSales. The Lady Royals made 14 of 18 free throws in the second half and 16 of 20 (80 percent) for the game.

DeSales was led by senior forward Colleen Gavin (Quakertown, Pa./Quakertown), who had 16 points and eight rebounds.

Scranton returns to action on Sunday at 2 p.m. when it hosts Landmark Conference foe Merchant Marine Academy in the Long Center.

--LADY ROYALS--