WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. – The No. 5/8 University of Scranton women's basketball team put forth a dominant defensive effort and held Lycoming to 23.8% shooting from the floor in a 62-26 victory over the Warriors on Wednesday night at Lamade Gym in Williamsport.

The 26 points matches a season-low allowed by the Lady Royals after they previously gave up 26 in a 73-26 victory over Drew on Jan. 24. Head coach Ben O'Brien's team has allowed 40 points or less on nine occasions.

Scranton led 13-12 after the first quarter before breaking the game open in the second stanza as they outscored the Warriors by a 19-2 margin. In fact, the Lady Royals gave up just 14 Lycoming points over the final three quarters.

In the first quarter, the visitors scored the first four points of the game before Lycoming used a 12-5 run to take a 12-9 lead for the time being. Senior Allie Lynch (Villanova, Pa./Academy of Notre Dame de Namur) quickly answered for the Lady Royals with a jumper and freshman Katie Gorski (Pine Brook, N.J./Montville Township) sank a pair of free throws at the 1:12 mark that made it a 13-12 game after one. Scranton opened the second quarter on a 16-0 run capped off by consecutive threes from Lynch and freshman Meghan Lamanna (New Providence, N.J./New Providence) that extended the advantage to 29-12 with 1:56 remaining. Following Lycoming's lone points of the quarter, Gorski connected on a three to give the Lady Royals a 32-14 edge at the break.

O'Brien's team held a 41-20 lead with 3:05 left in the third quarter when Lamanna sank a jumper to ignite a 12-0 run over the remainder of the period. Lynch buried a pair of threes as part of the run including one from the corner at the buzzer that made it 53-20 headed to the fourth. Lycoming could not get any closer than 31 in the fourth quarter and Lamanna scored the final five points of the contest in the Lady Royals' ninth consecutive victory.

Scranton shot 33.3% (24-of-72) from the floor and 29.6% (8-of-27) from long range on the night, while holding the Warriors to 23.8% (10-of-42) from the field and 11.1% (2-of-18) from deep. The Lady Royals also forced 24 Warrior turnovers including five steals from sophomore Jenna Sloan (Central Square, N.Y./Bishop Grimes).

Lamanna led a balanced scoring attack with 12 points on 5-of-8 shooting and Lynch added a season-high 11 on 4-of-5 from the floor including a perfect 3-of-3 from beyond the arc. Gorski and sophomore Kaeli Romanowski (Lake Ariel, Pa./Western Wayne) tallied eight points apiece and the latter added five rebounds, four assists and two steals.

The Lady Royals held a decisive 49-28 edge on the glass including 25 offensive rebounds. Sophomore Kaci Kranson (Scranton, Pa./Holy Cross) and senior Maddy Ryan (Malvern, Pa./Villa Maria Academy) collected eight boards apiece and Gorski added six.

Emily Lockard paced Lycoming with nine points.

The University of Scranton women's basketball team will return home to host Elizabethtown in a crucial Landmark Conference showdown on Saturday afternoon at the John Long Center at 4 p.m. Saturday's winner will secure the No. 2 seed in next week's Landmark Tournament.

--ROYALS--