Box Score ELIZABETHTOWN, Pa. – The No. 17 University of Scranton women's basketball team (21-2, 12-0 Landmark) was able to fend off a late rally by Elizabethtown and captured a 15th straight win with a 64-55 victory over the Blue Jays (18-4, 10-2 Landmark) on Saturday afternoon at Thompson Gymnasium in Elizabethtown.
Scranton sits atop the Landmark Conference standings with two games remaining, while ETown and Catholic are tied for second at 10-2.
All three along with Drew were listed in the top nine of the initial set of NCAA Regional Rankings that was unveiled earlier this week.
The Blue Jays' Jessica King hit a layup to cut the lead to three at 58-55 with 1:22 to play, but graduate student Abby Anderson (Scranton, Pa./Holy Cross) sank 6-of-8 from the free throw line down the stretch to preserve the Lady Royals' 15th straight victory.
Head coach Nick DiPillo's squad raced out to an early lead on Saturday as junior Hannah Angelini (Baldwin Place, N.Y./Somers) buried a three for an 11-2 lead just over two minutes into the game. Later in the first quarter, consecutive threes from sophomore Maddie Hartnett (Chatham, N.J./Chatham) and junior Emma Duerr (Long Valley, N.J./Morris Catholic) stretched the lead to double digits as Scranton held a 22-12 lead after one. The lead extended to as many as 15 in the second quarter following an Emily Shurina (East Meadow, N.Y./East Meadow) layup to make it 31-16 with 4:39 to play, but the Blue Jays cut things back to single digits and another Shurina layup gave the Lady Royals a 39-32 halftime advantage.
Following an Elizabethtown bucket to start the third quarter, junior Bridget Monaghan's (Florham Park, N.J./Morristown-Beard) layup ignited an 11-2 run, which was capped by an Anderson jumper to open up a 52-36 lead at the 4:09 mark. The Lady Royals led 52-41 at the end of three and scored five of the first seven points in the fourth quarter as a Monaghan three extended the advantage to 57-43 with 8:57 left. This was where the Blue Jays rallied with a 10-1 spurt of their own over the next seven plus minutes and as previously mentioned, King's layup cut the lead to three at 58-55 with 1:22 left.
Anderson led Scranton offensively with 15 points, 12 rebounds and seven assists, while Shurina added 14 points and Angelini chipped in with 10.
This marked Anderson's third double-double in her last four games and her seventh of the season.
The Blue Jays were led by Veronica Christ who had a game-high 21 points and Summer McNulty who added 13.
On the afternoon, the Lady Royals were 22-of-62 (35.5%) from the floor and 9-of-23 (39.1%) from three-point range, while ETown shot 31.6% (18-of-57) from the field and 14.3% (3-of-21) from beyond the arc.
Scranton also made 11-of-14 (78.6%) from the charity stripe in the victory.
The Lady Royals look to extend their winning streak when they return home to host Susquehanna in Landmark Conference action on Wednesday night. Opening tip in the John Long Center is set for 7 p.m.
--LADY ROYALS--
