SELINSGROVE, Pa.—If the University of Scranton women's basketball team continues to play like it did in today's 82-54 victory over Susquehanna University, the Lady Royals could make some noise in the upcoming Landmark Conference tournament.

The Lady Royals shot a season-high 50.8 percent from the field, converted 23 Crusader turnovers into 26 points, and got 41 points from their bench to win their third straight game to improve to 15-6 overall and 7-3 in the conference.  The loss drops Susquehanna to 7-14 overall and 2-8 in the Landmark.

Freshman guard Jaclyn Gantz (Havertown, Pa./Haverford) led the inspired Scranton reserves with a season-high 14 points on 5 of 6 shooting from the field and senior starting forward Erin Boggan (Danbury, Conn./Danbury) finished with 14 points, seven rebounds, and three blocks.  

The Royals, who also shot a season-high 52.9 percent (9 of 17) from the 3-point arc, received 10 points off the bench from senior guard Christina Hiltunen (Brooklyn, NY/Bishop Kearney) and nine points and five rebounds from sophomore forward Meredith Mesaris (Fairfax, Va./Fairfax).

Susquehanna, which fell behind 43-18 by intermission, was led by junior guard Mariah Monahan (Towanda, Pa./Towanda Area) with 20 points and senior guard/forward Shannon Grunwald (Neshanic Station, NJ/Somerville) had nine points and seven rebounds.

With a big halftime lead, Lady Royal head coach Mike Strong got an opportunity today to utilize his bench to its utmost.  Only one starter played more than 20 minutes and six of Scranton's 10 reserves played at least 10.

And the Lady Royal reserves took full advantage of the situation.  They shot nearly 54 percent from the field (14 of 26), including 63.6 percent (7 of 11) from the 3-point arc, and pulled down 15 of Scranton's 32 rebounds.  They also came up with 10 of the Lady Royals' 15 steals.

Duplicating today's effort will be a major goal for the Lady Royals in their final four games.  They'll face two nationally-ranked teams—13th-ranked Catholic University next Saturday, February 9, and 23rd-ranked Moravian the following Wednesday, February 13, at the Long Center—while trying to avoid letdowns against Drew University this Wednesday, February 6, at home and in their regular-season finale at Goucher College on Saturday, February 16, in Towson, Maryland.  Wednesday's game against Drew will tip-off at 7:00 p.m.

Gantz's 14-point effort surpassed her previous high of 13 points against Goucher on January 12 at the Long Center.