Box Score TOWSON, Md. – The No. 4 University of Scranton women's basketball team (19-0, 8-0 Landmark) opened up a double-digit lead in the first quarter and rolled to an 83-51 victory over the Goucher Gophers (3-16, 0-8 Landmark) on Saturday afternoon at the Decker Sports & Recreation Center in Towson.
This marks the first time that the Lady Royals have started 19-0 since the 2015-16 campaign.
Freshman Kaci Kranson (Scranton, Pa./Holy Cross) opened the scoring in the contest with five straight points and a layup by senior Bridget Monaghan (Florham Park, N.J./Morristown-Beard) made it 10-0 Scranton just over two minutes into the game. Goucher cut the lead to seven at 12-5, but junior Maddy Ryan (Malvern, Pa./Villa Maria Academy) immediately responded with consecutive jumpers and the Lady Royals later held a 25-11 lead after one quarter following a layup at the buzzer by fellow junior Maddie Hartnett (Chatham, N.J./Chatham). Monaghan hit a three to begin the second quarter and the two teams traded baskets for much of the quarter and the Gophers sliced the lead to nine at 31-22 with 3:07 to play before Scranton scored the final five points of the quarter to take a 36-22 lead into the locker room.
The Lady Royals led 38-26 with 6:53 left in the third quarter when senior Hannah Angelini (Baldwin Place, N.Y./Somers) sank a jumper to ignite a 23-8 run over the remainder of the quarter and a trio of three-pointers by Hartnett, Kranson and Rajza extended the lead to 61-34 after three. Monaghan then hit consecutive threes of her own to begin the fourth and Scranton cruised to a 19th straight victory as they led by as many in the fourth quarter at 76-36.
Monaghan led all scorers as she matched her season-high 24 points and also added three assists and three steals, while Kranson added 15 points on 6-of-10 shooting and graduate student Sam Rajza (Plains, Pa./Holy Redeemer) had 10.
Monaghan had previously scored 24 in a win over Rhodes on Dec. 20.
Alexis Kuhlman paced Goucher with 15 points and Kyani Quarles recorded 13 points and 14 rebounds.
On the afternoon, Scranton was 31-of-66 (47.5%) from the floor and 12-of-32 (37.5%) from deep to go along with a 9-of-12 (75.0%) performance at the free throw line. They were able to limit the host Gophers to a 30.8% clip (20-of-65) from the field and 25.9% (7-of-27) from beyond the arc.
The Lady Royals held a 42-41 advantage on the glass behind eight boards from Angelini and seven from Kranson.
Head coach Ben O'Brien's team will hit the road to battle Susquehanna on Wednesday night with opening tip slated for 7 p.m.
--LADY ROYALS--
