SCRANTON, Pa. – Junior Bridget Monaghan (Florham Park, N.J./Morristown-Beard) scored 11 of her 21 points in the fourth quarter and The University of Scranton women's basketball team (15-2, 6-0 Landmark) erased a double-digit second half deficit for a 75-70 victory over the Elizabethtown Blue Jays (12-3, 4-1 Landmark) in a thriller on Saturday afternoon at the John Long Center in Scranton.

The Lady Royals trailed 57-46 with 1:51 left in the third quarter and whittled the deficit down to seven at the end of three before finishing the comeback in the fourth quarter. Monaghan's jumper with 2:11 to play gave Scranton the lead for good at 71-70.

This marked a ninth straight win for head coach Nick DiPillo's team dating back to Dec. 21.

There proved to be not much separation between the teams early on and the Blue Jays led 18-13 with 1:15 left in the opening stanza before five straight points from the Lady Royals including a layup from junior Hannah Angelini (Baldwin Place, N.Y./Somers) in the final seconds evened things at 18 apiece after one. Trailing by three in the early stages of the second quarter, sophomore Maddy Ryan (Malvern, Pa./Villa Maria Academy) hit a layup to fuel a 10-0 run and another Angelini layup opened up a 31-24 advantage at the 5:34 mark. ETown battled back to tie things at 33 in the final two plus minutes of the half and a Taylor Huyck three-pointer gave the visitors a 36-35 lead at the break.

The Blue Jays opened the second half with a 9-2 spurt and led 45-37 following a Summer McNulty jumper at the 6:55 mark of the third quarter. From there, the lead ballooned to 11 on three different occasions, but senior Emily Shurina (East Meadow, N.Y./East Meadow) buried a three to draw the Lady Royals back within seven at 59-52 heading into the fourth quarter. Monaghan scored five straight points in the fourth to cut the lead to 64-61 with 7:26 to play before the Blue Jays answered with four consecutive points of their own to stretch the lead back to seven at 68-61. Sophomore Maddie Hartnett (Chatham, N.J./Chatham) sank two free throws to kick off an 8-0 run and a layup from graduate student Abby Anderson (Scranton, Pa./Holy Cross) gave Scranton their first lead since the opening seconds of the third quarter at 69-68 with 2:35 remaining. McNulty quickly gave ETown the lead right back with a layup of her own on the other end, but Monaghan had the final say with consecutive buckets that opened up a 73-70 lead at the 1:23 mark.

17 of Monaghan's 21 points on the afternoon came in the second half as she was a perfect 7-of-7 from the floor in the final 20 minutes.

Anderson tallied 21 points of her own, while the Lady Royals also received eight points apiece from Angelini and Hartnett.

Veronica Christ paced the Blue Jays with 23 points and McNulty added 20 on 6-of-8 shooting from the floor.

On the day, the Lady Royals shot 45.9% (28-of-61) from the field and 45.0% (9-of-20) from deep, while the Blue Jays were 24-of-55 (43.6%) from the field and 5-of-14 (35.0%) from three-point range.

ETown held a 39-28 edge on the glass and Anderson led Scranton with eight boards in the contest.

The University of Scranton women's basketball team is back in action on Wednesday night as Drew comes to town for a Landmark Conference battle that will tip off at 7 p.m.

--LADY ROYALS--