KINGS POINT, N.Y. - Junior forward Alexix Roman (Hawley, Pa./Wallenpaupack) led the way once again with a game-high 13 points, as the fourth-ranked University of Scranton women's basketball team never trailed in 56-42 win at Merchant Marine on Wednesday night in Landmark Conference play.
The victory was of significance for the Lady Royals, as the team has now matched the best start to a season in program history at 24-0, joining the 1994-95 team by winning 24 straight games in a season. Scranton is also a perfect 15-0 in the Landmark Conference, as well.
Merchant Marine fell to 9-14 and 2-12 in the Landmark with the defeat.
In the win, Scranton quickly took control of the game in the first quarter, opening up a 17-5 lead with 2:49 to go in the period. The Lady Royals continue to lead by double-figures throughout the second period, but Merchant Marine was able to slice the Scranton lead down to six points (24-18) late in the half.
Scranton, however, was able to score the final two points of the quarter, and went into intermission up 26-18 on the host Mariners after a defensive minded first 20 minutes of action.
In the third quarter, Scranton turned up the pressure even more defensively to effectively put Merchant Marine away for the night, as the Lady Royals outscored the Mariners 18-9 in the period to open up an insurmountable 44-27 lead entering the fourth quarter.
From there, Scranton rolled, as the Lady Royals notched their 14th win in Landmark Conference play by double-figures and their 21st overall by double-digits for the season.
Overall, Roman led the way again for the Lady Royals, scoring in double-figures for the 12th straight game overall and for the 23rd time in 24 games for the season. She also led the Lady Royals in scoring for the fifth time in six games and for the 17th time in a contest for the year.
Scranton had only one other double-digit scorer in the game in freshman guard Bridgette Mann (Canadensis, Pa./Wallenpaupack), who ended with 10 points. Junior forward Sarah Payonk (Schwenksville, Pa./Spring-Ford) had just four points in the win, but snagged a game-high 12 rebounds.
The Lady Royals will look to complete a perfect regular season on Saturday at Catholic. The regular season Landmark Conference finale gets underway at 4 p.m.
--LADY ROYALS--