ELIZABETHTOWN, Pa. – Makenzie Mason (Doylestown, Pa./Central Bucks West) scored on a layup with 0.6 seconds remaining to give the The University of Scranton a 46-44 victory at Elizabethtown College in a tight Landmark Conference women's basketball battle on Saturday afternoon. The #15 Lady Royals, winners of 13 straight games, improve to 18-1 on the season and 7-1 in conference play.
Just hours after the men's basketball team made Scranton just the second NCAA Division III school with 2,500 combined wins between its men's and women's programs, the Lady Royals earned win #2,501 in a tightly contested affair that never saw a lead of greater than two possessions.
Mason finished tied for a game-high with 13 points while Emily Sheehan (Dunmore, Pa./Dunmore) added eight points in the win. Katie Feehery (Media, Pa./Cardinal O'Hara) and Bridgette Mann (Canadensis, Pa./Wallenpaupack) added seven points apiece for the Lady Royals, who saw Feehery and Sofia Recupero (Whitestone, N.Y./St. Francis Prep) tied for a game-high with seven rebounds apiece.
Scranton netted the first four points of Saturday's contest before Elizabethtown (11-7, 5-3 Landmark) countered with the next five points to briefly take the lead. The Lady Royals went back in front on a three-pointer from Mason at the 1:59 mark before holding a 12-9 lead at the end of the first quarter.
A layup by Feehery to open the second stanza gave Scranton a 14-9 lead, the largest for either team of the game. The two teams swapped the lead four times the rest of the period before the Lady Royals took a 21-20 edge into halftime.
The lead changed hands six times in the third quarter with the visitors entering the final period with a slim, 37-35 advantage.
Elizabethtown took a 40-39 lead with 5:33 left, but Scranton held the hosts to just two field goals the rest of the way. Tied at 44-apiece, the Blue Jays looked to go ahead with four seconds left, but missed a layup and Lily Warhaftig (Harlem, N.Y./Poly Prep) came up with a big defensive rebound.
Scranton advanced the ball coming out of a timeout and Mann found Mason in the lane for the game-winning layup with less than a second remaining.
Elizabethtown was able to get off a desperation three-pointer at the buzzer, but ball bounced off the rim and stayed out as the Lady Royals escaped with the victory.
Lydia Lawson tied for a game-high with 13 points in the loss for the Blue Jays.
Scranton will wrap up a tough four-game road swing on Wednesday evening with a Landmark Conference showdown at Moravian. Opening tipoff between the Lady Royals and Greyhounds is set for 7:00 p.m. in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.