WASHINGTON, D.C. – The No. 19 University of Scranton women's basketball team (6-1, 1-0 Landmark) closed the game on a 15-3 run over the final 6:10 and rallied for a 56-53 victory over the No. 25 Catholic University Cardinals (7-1, 0-1 Landmark) in the conference opener for both teams on Saturday afternoon at Franny Murray Court in Washington, D.C.

Trailing 50-41 with 6:10 to play following a three from Catholic's Amelia Baldo, junior Bridget Monaghan (Florham Park, N.J./Morristown-Beard) hit a pair of free throws to ignite the 16-3 run for Scranton and graduate student Abby Anderson (Scranton, Pa./Holy Cross) gave the Lady Royals the lead for good with a layup that made it 54-53 with 0:42 remaining.

Monaghan extended the lead to three with two more from the charity stripe and a three-pointer from the Cardinals' Amanda Johnson was off the mark in the final seconds.

The contest was a rematch of each of the last two Landmark Conference championship games that have both been won by Scranton.

The first quarter was a defensive struggle between the two teams and a pair of late free throws from Anderson tied things at 10 apiece at the end of one. In the second quarter, Carly Mulvaney hit a layup to give Catholic a 20-16 lead with 5:09 remaining before a jumper from Monaghan tied things at 22 apiece and the hosts eventually took a 26-24 lead into the locker room.

Scranton started the second half with five straight points for a 29-26 advantage, but the Cardinals responded with a 13-4 run and a Baldo layup made it a 39-33 with 2:20 left in the third quarter. The six point lead would hold going into the fourth quarter and Catholic stretched the lead to nine at 50-41 to set the stage for the afore-mentioned Lady Royals' comeback.

Anderson scored seven of her game-high 20 points in the final six plus minutes and added a career-high 17 rebounds in the win. Her 17 boards are the most by a Scranton player since Makenzie Mason tallied 18 in a 69-46 win at Goucher on Feb. 16, 2019.

Joining Anderson in double figures for points was Monaghan who added 16 of her own including a perfect 6-6 clip from the free throw line.

Rachel Bussanich and Luca Mamula paced Catholic with 12 points apiece in the setback.

Both teams struggled shooting on the afternoon as the Lady Royals were 18-of-59 (30.5%) from the floor and 3-of-20 (15.0%) from three-point range, while Catholic shot 32.8% (19-of-58) from the field and 5-of-23 (21.7%) from deep.

Scranton grabbed 22 offensive rebounds on the day and held a 50-34 edge in the rebounding battle led by Anderson's 17 and 10 from senior Emily Shurina (East Meadow, N.Y./East Meadow). 

The Lady Royals will enjoy a week off before returning to action next Saturday, Dec. 11 for a non-conference matchup at Stevens that will get underway at 1 p.m.

--LADY ROYALS--