DALLAS, Pa. – The University of Scranton women's basketball team (5-1) pulled away from Misericordia (3-3) in a 70-48 win over the Cougars on Monday night at Anderson Sports Center in Dallas.

The Lady Royals led by nine at halftime and 12 at the end of three before outscoring Misericordia by a 19-9 margin in the fourth quarter for the 22 point victory.

Scranton checked in at No. 19 in the latest D3Hoops.com Top 25 that was released late on Monday afternoon.

Things were even at 13 apiece with 2:35 to play in the first quarter when junior Bridget Monaghan (Florham Park, N.J./Morristown-Beard) buried one of her six threes on the night to ignite an 11-4 run over the remainder of the quarter and a 24-17 lead. Both teams played strong defense in the second quarter and the Lady Royals took the afore-mentioned nine point lead (33-24) into the locker room.

The Cougars cut the lead to eight at 43-35 with 4:06 to play in the third quarter before fellow junior Sara Walsh (Havertown, Pa./Haverford) hit a layup and Monaghan sank consecutive threes to give the visitors a 51-39 lead after three. Misericordia scored the first point of the fourth quarter on a free throw, but Scranton answered with a 12-1 run capped by a layup from graduate student Abby Anderson (Scranton, Pa./Holy Cross) to take a 63-41 lead with 5:43 remaining and the Cougars would not get any closer than 18 the rest of the way.

Monaghan led all scorers with 25 points on 8-of-15 shooting including a 6-of-11 performance from three and was joined in double figures by senior Emily Shurina (East Meadow, N.Y./East Meadow) who added 16 points and eight rebounds. Monaghan also matched her career-high with five steals in the victory, which had previously been set in a win over Catholic on Feb. 8, 2020.

Tonight marked the third 25 plus point game of the season for Monaghan who leads the Landmark Conference in both scoring (20.5 ppg) and three-point percentage (59.6%, 28-of-47).

Elsewhere for the Lady Royals, junior Kyra Quigley (Drexel Hill, Pa./Sacred Heart Academy Bryn Mawr) added eight points, six rebounds and four blocks.

Alyssa Bondi paced the Cougars with 14 points in the setback.

The Lady Royals shot 43.1% (25-of-58) from the floor and 44.8% (13-of-29) from beyond the arc, while limiting Misericordia to under 28% from both the field and three-point range.

Head coach Nick DiPillo's squad held a slight 43-42 edge in the rebounding battle led by Shurina's eight boards.

Scranton opens Landmark Conference play with a Top 25 battle at No. 25 Catholic on Saturday with action in the nation's capital getting underway at 4 p.m.

--LADY ROYALS--