SCRANTON, Pa. – The University of Scranton women's basketball team (22-2, 13-0 Landmark) used a 28-0 first half run to cruise past Susquehanna (12-11, 4-9 Landmark) and extend the winning streak to 16 games with a 69-41 victory over the River Hawks on Wednesday night at the John Long Center in Scranton.

The Lady Royals also put forth a dominant defensive effort in the victory as they held Susquehanna to 23.4% (15-of-64) shooting from the field and forced 14 turnovers.

Winners of 16 straight, Scranton was ranked No. 1 in the NCAA Region V Rankings that were released earlier on Wednesday. The Lady Royals are followed in the top five of the rankings by Gettysburg (21-3), Messiah (20-2), Johns Hopkins (19-3) and Catholic (19-3).

Head coach Nick DiPillo's team has also clinched the No. 1 seed in next week's Landmark Conference Tournament.

Susquehanna scored the first basket of the game on a Kaitlyn Lynch layup with 8:38 to play in the first quarter before graduate student Abby Anderson (Scranton, Pa./Holy Cross) buried a three to jumpstart the afore-mentioned 28-0 run. Each of the Lady Royals' first five baskets during the run were three-pointers and a layup from sophomore Maddie Hartnett (Chatham, N.J./Chatham) made it 28-2 with 9:19 to play in the second quarter. Scranton was able to cruise from that point forward and junior Bridget Monaghan (Florham Park, N.J./Morristown-Beard) sank one of her four threes on the night to give the hosts a 40-12 cushion at the half.

The second half proved to be more of the same for the Lady Royals as another Monaghan triple stretched the lead to as many as 35 at 54-19 with 5:36 left in the third quarter. Scranton led 62-28 at the end of three and the River Hawks scored the first 11 points of the fourth quarter, but were unable to get any closer than 23.

Anderson scored 17 of her game-high 22 points in the first half and also posted her third consecutive double-double with 11 rebounds in 23 minutes of action. She was joined in double figures by Monaghan who buried four-of-six from beyond the arc en route to 16 points and Hartnett who added 10 points.

In her last three games, Anderson is averaging 17.3 points and 13.3 rebounds per contest.  

Amanda Lemire paced Susquehanna with 11 points in the setback.

The Lady Royals shot 45.8% (27-of-59) from the floor and 56.0% (14-of-25) from beyond the arc, while holding the River Hawks to the afore-mentioned 23.4% clip from the field and a 6-of-31 mark (19.4%) from deep.

Scranton will host Catholic to close out the regular season on Saturday afternoon at the John Long Center with opening tip slated for 4 p.m. Prior to the game, the Lady Royals will honor the five members of the 2021-22 senior class.

--LADY ROYALS--