Kings Point, NY - The Scranton Royals made 12 three-pointers and shot 44 percent from the field en route to an 81-39 victory over the Merchant Marine women's basketball team Wednesday night. Meredith Mesaris netted a game high 21 points for the Mariners while Demi VanDerWal (Springfield, IL) paced USMMA with 14 points on 6-of-14 shooting. Rachel Wehlburg (Herndon, VA) had a strong game off the bench for the Mariners with four points, six rebounds, and four blocks.
Scranton (12-2, 4-0 Landmark) jumped out to an 8-0 lead and knocked down back-to-back trifectas to start the night. The Royals also got seven points and nine assists from Lindsay Fluehr and have now won 10 straight games to own the longest winning streak in the conference. The visitors limited USMMA to 25 percent shooting and forced 11 turnovers in the first half to take a 44-16 advantage into the intermission.
Merchant Marine (2-9, 0-5 Landmark) opened the second half with a 6-0 spurt behind two points from Julia Mall (Littlestown, PA), VanDerWal, and Kristina Walz (Manona, IA). USMMA improved its shooting percentage to 36% (9-25) in the final 20 minutes but was unable to reel in the Royals. Eight different Mariners cracked the scoreboard and grabbed at least two rebounds in the loss.
The USMMA women's basketball team returns to the court Saturday afternoon for a road conference game at Susquehanna.