Mike Strong	Meredith Mesaris	Sarah Payonk
Alison Sweeney	Lia DiSciascio	Jaclyn Gantz

Box Score

Photos (Courtesy of Can Ceccacci)

WILKES-BARRE, Pa—It’s one down and one to go for veteran University of Scranton women’s basketball coach Mike Strong’s quest to reach another impressive milestone.

He is now one win away from becoming the first coach in NCAA Division III women’s basketball history to win 800 games, after his Lady Royals shook off a cold shooting night to defeat former Freedom Conference rival Wilkes University, 65-46, Wednesday evening at the Marts Center.

Junior forward Meredith Mesaris (Fairfax, Va./Fairfax) led Scranton with 14 points and eight rebounds, senior guard Alison Sweeney (Wall, NJ/St. Rose) chipped in 10 points, and freshman forward Sarah Payonk (Schwenksville, Pa./Spring-Ford) finished with eight points and a game-high 15 rebounds.

The win was the eighth straight for the Lady Royals, now 10-2 heading into Saturday’s Landmark Conference showdown with Juniata College.

Scranton’s ability to control the boards—it out-rebounded the Lady Colonels 53-39—and its ability to shoot free throws more than made up for its shooting woes.  The Lady Royals connected on 22 of 26 attempts from the charity stripe (84.6 percent) to offset an 18-for-59 effort (30.5 percent) from the floor, including only 7-of-28 (25 percent) from the 3-point arc.

The Lady Colonels, now 2-9, also struggled finding the mark, finishing 15-for-56 from the field (26.8 percent), including 0-10 from the 3-point arc and just 57.1 percent (16 of 28) from the free throw line.

Juniors Jaclyn Gantz (Havertown, Pa./Haverford) and Lia DiSciascio (Broomall, Pa./Cardinal O’Hara) gave the Lady Royals a big lift off the bench, contributing eight points apiece as the Scranton bench out-scored the Wilkes reserves 22-9.  DiSciascio also helped out in other key areas, finishing with nine rebounds and three steals in 24 minutes of action.

Junior guard Chelsea Brown (Garnet Valley, Pa./Garnet Valley) led Wilkes with 19 points and 11 rebounds and juniorElena Stombone (Jessup, Pa./Valley View), who had 34 in the Lady Colonels’ 75-67 upset of Scranton at the Long Center last season, finished with 14 points, four rebounds, and four assists.

Tip-off for Saturday’s game between the Lady Royals and Juniata College is set for 4:00 p.m.

Strong is now 799-180 in 34 seasons, all at Scranton.

--LADY ROYALS--