Box Score SCRANTON, Pa. – The top seeded University of Scranton women's basketball team (24-2) raced out to a 19 point halftime lead and cruised to a 60-44 victory over the No. 4 seed Drew Rangers (16-8) in Landmark Conference semifinal action on Wednesday night at the John Long Center in Scranton.
The Lady Royals have now won 18 straight and will host No. 3 seed Catholic in Saturday's Landmark Championship game with opening tip in the Long Center slated for 4 p.m. Catholic was a 70-52 winner over Elizabethtown on Friday.
This also marks the third consecutive year that the Lady Royals and Cardinals will do battle in the Landmark title game with the former having won each of the previous two.
On Wednesday, Scranton raced out to a 7-0 lead and eventually led 13-8 after one quarter. The two teams traded baskets for the first four plus minutes of the second quarter and the hosts held an 18-13 lead when senior Emily Shurina (East Meadow, N.Y./East Meadow) buried a three to ignite a 16-2 run over the remainder of the half. Graduate student Abby Anderson (Scranton, Pa./Holy Cross) capped the run with a layup to give the Lady Royals a 34-15 advantage at the break.
Head coach Nick DiPillo's team was able to stretch the lead to as many as 23 at 43-20 following a layup from sophomore Maddie Hartnett (Chatham, N.J./Chatham) with 2:06 to play in the third quarter. Drew would score the final five points of the quarter to slice the lead to 43-25 after three and eventually cut the lead to 12 at 48-36 following a Joey Meyers jumper with 6:45 to play. After a Scranton timeout, Anderson hit a layup and Hartnett connected on a three that made it 53-36 at the 4:19 mark and from there, the Lady Royals were able to preserve an 18th straight victory.
Anderson led all scorers with a game-high 20 points and also added nine rebounds in the victory, while junior Bridget Monaghan (Florham Park, N.J./Morristown-Beard) added 11 points of her own. Elsewhere for Scranton, Shurina chipped in with nine points and six boards to go along with six points, seven rebounds and six assists from junior Hannah Angelini (Baldwin Place, N.Y./Somers).
Meyers paced Drew with 12 points in the losing effort and Erin Frederick had 10.
The Lady Royals were 24-of-62 (38.7%) from the floor and 11-of-31 (35.5%) from three-point range, while the Rangers shot 36.0% (18-of-50) from the field and 2-of-15 (13.3%) from deep. Scranton also held a 41-34 edge on the glass on the night.
A full preview of Saturday's Landmark Championship game will be posted at athletics.scranton.edu later in the week.
--LADY ROYALS--
