SCRANTON, Pa. – The University of Scranton women's basketball team (23-2, 14-0 Landmark) outscored Catholic (18-4, 9-4 Landmark) by an 18-8 margin over the final 4:44 and rallied to top the Cardinals by a score of 72-68 in the regular season finale on Saturday afternoon at the John Long Center.

Scranton trailed by eight or more on two occasions in the second half, but was able to complete the comeback and finish off the undefeated Landmark regular season.

Junior Bridget Monaghan (Florham Park, N.J./Morristown-Beard) made a three-pointer to tie the game with 3:01 to play and senior Danielle McCurdy (Philadelphia, Pa./Archbishop Ryan) followed about a minute later with a layup off the glass to give Scranton the lead for good at 63-61.

This marks the second time that the Lady Royals have accomplished the feat and the fourth time in Landmark history that a team has gone unbeaten in conference play. The other three teams on that list are Scranton (2015-16), Juniata (2011-12) and Moravian (2009-10).

The top seeded Lady Royals will host No. 4 seed Drew in semifinal action on Wednesday night with action getting underway at 7 p.m. In Wednesday's other semifinal, No. 2 seed Elizabethtown takes on No. 3 seed Catholic.

Catholic led 11-6 with 3:32 to play in the first quarter, but Monaghan scored five of Scranton's final six points in the quarter and a layup in the waning seconds cut the deficit to 13-12 after one. The two sides traded baskets for a majority of the second quarter and things were even at 22 late in the period following an 8-0 run Scranton run when the Cardinals scored the final four points to take a 26-22 lead into the locker room.

The game remained tied at 31 all following a three-pointer from junior Hannah Angelini (Baldwin Place, N.Y./Somers) with 6:33 to play in the third quarter before Catholic's Amanda Johnson hit a layup on the other end to ignite an 11-4 run for the Cardinals over the next three plus minutes. The run resulted in a 44-35 lead for the visitors with 2:15 to play in the quarter, but Scranton battled right back with three-pointers on their next four possessions to cut the lead to 50-47 entering the fourth quarter. Graduate student Abby Anderson (Scranton, Pa./Holy Cross) sank a three to tie things at 50 to open the scoring in the quarter. However, Johnson once again answered with a bucket on the other end to fuel an 8-0 Cardinals run for a 58-50 advantage with 7:47 to play. This was where the Lady Royals began to rally and Monaghan's afore-mentioned three eventually tied things at 61 to set the stage for McCurdy's go-ahead bucket.

Monaghan scored nine of her game-high 24 points over the final 3:37, while Anderson added 21 points and McCurdy added seven with six of those points coming in the fourth quarter.

The nation's leading three-point shooter at 51.6%, Monaghan was 4-of-7 from beyond the arc and 9-of-13 from the field on the day.

Rachel Bussanich paced Catholic with 21 points off the bench and Erin Doherty added 15 of her own in the loss.

Both teams shot over 50% from the floor as Scranton was 25-of-45 (55.6%) and the Cardinals were 27-of-51 (52.9%). From three-point range, the Lady Royals sank 11-of-24 (45.8%), while Catholic made 9-of-21 (42.9%).

The Lady Royals held a 25-22 edge in the rebounding battle led by five apiece from Anderson and senior Emily Shurina (East Meadow, N.Y./East Meadow).

Prior to the game, the program honored the five members of the 2021-22 senior class: Anderson, McCurdy, Shurina, Kayla Farney (Webster, N.Y./Webster-Thomas) and Carly Heineman (Abington, Pa./Gwynedd Mercy Academy).

A full preview of Wednesday's semifinal game will be posted at athletics.scranton.edu in the coming days.

--LADY ROYALS--