SCRANTON, Pa. – The No. 2 seed University of Scranton women's basketball team (24-2) closed the game on an 11-1 run over the final 2:54 and outlasted the No. 3 seed Elizabethtown Blue Jays (19-8) by a 51-42 score in Landmark Conference semifinal action on Thursday at the John Long Center in Scranton.

With the victory, the Lady Royals advance to take on top-seeded Catholic who recorded an 83-70 victory over Susquehanna in Thursday's other semifinal.

Trailing 41-40, sophomore Jenna Sloan (Central Square, N.Y./Bishop Grimes) hit a turnaround floater in the lane with 2:54 to go that gave Scranton the lead for good. Following a Blue Jays' miss on the ensuing possession, senior Maddie Hartnett (Chatham, N.J./Chatham) buried a jumper and graduate student Hannah Angelini (Baldwin Place, N.Y./Somers) delivered a layup of her own that made it a 46-41 game. The Lady Royals went 5-of-6 from the line in the final 0:30 to help ice the victory.

Both teams were sluggish offensively out of the gate, but ETown used a three from Cyleigh Wilson to take a 7-0 lead at the 5:48 mark of the first quarter. The Lady Royals began to battle back in the late stages of the quarter and graduate student Kyra Quigley (Drexel Hill, Pa./Sacred Heart Academy Bryn Mawr) hit a pair of layups that cut the deficit to six at 11-5 after one. ETown held a 17-10 lead with 5:30 to go in the second quarter when freshman Katie Gorski (Pine Brook, N.J./Montville Township) buried a three which ignited a 12-0 run and senior Allie Lynch (Villanova, Pa./Academy of Notre Dame de Namur) put an exclamation point on the run with a three of her own to give Scranton a 22-17 edge. In the final minute of the quarter, freshman Meghan Lamanna (New Providence, N.J./New Providence) sank a jumper to give the hosts a 24-20 lead at the break.

The two sides traded baskets for much of the third quarter and a Hartnett three made it a 36-29 game, but the Blue Jays then scored the final three points that cut the lead to 36-32 headed to the fourth. Senior Maddy Ryan's (Malvern, Pa./Villa Maria Academy) jumper gave the Lady Royals a 40-36 edge with 7:13 to play before ETown scored the next five points and eventually took a 41-40 lead at the 3:23 mark. From there, Sloan's afore-mentioned floater helped spark the 11-1 run that sent Scranton to the Landmark Conference title game for an 11^th consecutive year.

Hartnett and Ryan led the way offensively with 12 points apiece and Gorski contributed eight points and a career-high 11 boards. Gorski's 11 boards surpassed her previous-best mark of eight that had been set in a win at Susquehanna on Feb. 10.

Wilson and Makenna Mummert each tallied nine points in the setback for the Blue Jays.

McNulty is ETown's leading scorer at over 15 points per game, but Scranton's defense limited her to just seven points on 3-of-11 shooting.

The Lady Royals shot 35.8% (19-of-53) from the field, 35.7% (5-of-14) from deep and 80.0% (8-of-10) from the free throw line in the contest, while ETown was 17-of-48 (35.4%) from the floor, 2-of-9 (22.2%) from beyond the arc and 6-of-12 (50.0%) at the charity stripe.

Head coach Ben O'Brien's team held a 36-27 advantage on the glass behind the 11 from Gorski and seven from Hartnett.

A full preview of Saturday's championship game will be posted tomorrow at athletics.scranton.edu.