The University of Scranton women's basketball team saw its offense go cold at the most unfortunate time as the Lady Royals dropped a 47-40 decision to Catholic University in a Landmark Conference semifinal playoff game in the Long Center on Wednesday evening.
The loss brings an end to Scranton's season while Catholic advances to the Landmark Conference championship on Saturday against either Juniata or Moravian.
Playing in her final game as a Lady Royal, senior guard Sidney Jaques (Rosemont, N.J./Hunterdon Central) scored a team-high 11 points in the defeat. Junior forward Erin Boggan (Danbury, Conn./Danbury) added nine points, 11 rebounds and two blocks.
The 40 points scored were a season-low for Scranton. The Lady Royals (16-10) shot 28.6 percent (16-for-56) from the field, including 2-for-15 from 3-point range. They entered the game as the top 3-point shooting team in the conference at 34.4 percent.
Scranton led by two at halftime, 24-22, after holding the Cardinals to 8-for-29 (27.6 percent) from the field. But Catholic took control early in the second half with a 9-2 run to open the half. The Cardinals stretched the lead to six with 8:14 to play before Scranton went on a 7-0 run to take a 40-39 advantage with 3:42 remaining.
But the Lady Royals didn't score the rest of the way as Catholic ended the game on an 8-0 run.
The Cardinals came in as the conference's top rebounding team and showed it, taking a 48-39 advantage on the glass and holding Scranton to just nine offensive rebounds.
Freshman forward Meredith Mesaris (Fairfax, Va./Fairfax) added eight points and junior guard Christina Hiltunen (Brooklyn, N.Y./Bishop Kearney) had six points, six rebounds and three assists for Scranton.
The Lady Royals failed to reach the Landmark Conference championship for the first time in the conference's five years of existence. The 10 losses are the most since Scranton went 17-11 in 1981-82.
Catholic was led by 12 points and 11 rebounds from junior forward Katarina Owunna (Pittsburgh, Pa./Mount Alvernia). The Cardinals improved to 21-5 with the win.
--LADY ROYALS--