SCRANTON, Pa. – The top seeded University of Scranton women's basketball team (25-2) led for the final 37 minutes of the game and toppled the No. 3 seed Catholic University Cardinals (20-5) by a score of 68-51 to capture a seventh straight Landmark Conference title on Saturday afternoon at the John Long Center in Scranton.

The Lady Royals led by nine at halftime and never looked back en route to securing the Landmark's automatic bid to the 2022 NCAA Division III Women's Basketball Tournament. The field of 64 will be announced in a live selection show that will air on NCAA.com on Monday afternoon beginning at 2:30 p.m.

Graduate student Abby Anderson (Scranton, Pa./Holy Cross) earned Landmark MVP honors as she averaged 20.5 points and 10.0 rebounds in two tournament victories over Drew and Catholic. Anderson led all scorers with 21 points and also corralled a game-high 11 rebounds on Saturday.

Senior Emily Shurina (East Meadow, N.Y./East Meadow) added 11 points and six rebounds in the victory, sophomore Maddie Hartnett (Chatham, N.J./Chatham) had 10 and juniors Hannah Angelini (Baldwin Place, N.Y./Somers) and Bridget Monaghan (Florham Park, N.J./Morristown-Beard) chipped in with eight points apiece. Angelini also recorded six rebounds and five assists.

Scranton scored nine of the first 11 points in the contest as a layup from junior Kyra Quigley (Drexel Hill, Pa./Sacred Heart Academy Bryn Mawr) made it 9-2 with 5:31 left in the first quarter. Catholic battled back to slice the lead to three at 11-8, but the Lady Royals once again had an answer and a late three from Shurina extended the lead to 20-12 after one quarter. Anderson scored five straight points just past the midway point of the second quarter and a three from the top of the key opened up a 33-19 advantage at the 4:33 mark. From there, an 11-3 Cardinals run cut the lead back to six at 36-30 before Hartnett buried a three in the final seconds of the half to give the hosts a 39-30 lead.

Scranton began to stretch the lead back into double digits when Anderson hit a three and Angelini came through with a three-point play for a 47-32 lead at the 4:34 mark of the third quarter. Scranton held a 55-42 lead headed into the fourth and Catholic was unable to get any closer than 11 the rest of the way. The score was stuck on 55-44 for nearly three minutes in the early stages of the fourth quarter, but three-pointers from Shurina and Anderson down the stretch helped the Lady Royals salt away a seventh straight Landmark title.

Head coach Nick DiPillo's squad shot 45.6% (26-of-57) from the floor and 40.9% (9-of-22) from three-point range, while limiting Catholic to 35.2% (19-of-54) from the field and 31.6% (6-of-19) from deep.

Anderson's 11 rebounds led the way as Scranton held a 39-32 edge in the rebounding battle.

Catholic was led in the setback by Amanda Johnson with 12 points and Luca Mamula with 10.

Stay tuned to athletics.scranton.edu on Monday afternoon for more information on the Lady Royals' first round opponent in the NCAA Tournament.

--LADY ROYALS--