A late first-half surge and a strong second-half performance from freshman forward Alexix Roman (Hawley, Pa./Wallenpaupack) were all The University of Scranton women's basketball team needed in a 74-53 win over Juniata in a Landmark Conference semifinal on Wednesday night in the Long Center.
The Lady Royals (23-3) advance to Saturday's championship game against Moravian at 4:30 p.m. in the Long Center. The Greyhounds defeated Catholic, 66-65 in overtime, in Wednesday night's other semifinal.
Roman led the Lady Royals with 17 points, including 10 in the second half, and junior forward Meredith Mesaris (Fairfax, Va./Fairfax) added 13 points in the victory, Scranton's eighth in a row.
Scranton led by seven with 3:24 to play in the first half before it went on a 13-0 run to take a 38-18 lead before Juniata hit a 3-pointer four seconds before the half. The Lady Royals' run was fueled by 3-pointers from Mesaris and senior guard Alison Sweeney (Wall, N.J./St. Rose) and a pair of steals and layups by senior forward Katie Sherry (Havertown, Pa./Merion Mercy Academy).
Juniata (14-12) came out of the halftime break with a 7-0 run to cut the deficit to 38-28 a little more than two minutes into the second half. But Roman entered the game 30 seconds later and proceeded to score Scranton's next six points to stop the Juniata run. She added a pair of layups sandwiched around a 3-pointer by sophomore guard Noelle Alicea (Downingtown, Pa./Downingtown East) a few minutes later as Scranton pushed the lead to 60-40 with 10:22 remaining, and Juniata would get no closer the rest of the way.
Roman has now scored in double figures in six of Scranton's last eight games, all while coming off the bench. In those eight games, she is averaging 12.8 points per game.
Freshman forward Sarah Payonk (Schwenksville, Pa./Spring-Ford) had a strong all-around game, finishing with nine points, five rebounds, four assists, three steals and a block. Junior guard Lia DiSciascio (Broomall, Pa./Cardinal O'Hara) had nine points on three 3-pointers to go along with three assists, two rebounds and a steal, and Alicea had eight points, five assists and a steal.
Sophomore guard Jaclyn Gantz (Havertown, Pa./Haverford) didn't score a point, but she had a team-high six assists to go along with six rebounds and three steals, and junior guard Lindsay Fluehr (Bensalem, Pa./Nazareth Academy) had six rebounds, five assists and a steal.
Scranton finished 31-for-60 (51.7 percent) from the field, including 7-for-22 (31.8 percent) from 3-point range. The Lady Royals made five of six from the free throw line while making 14 steals and committing just 11 turnovers. Scranton had 34 points off 24 turnovers by Juniata, and the Lady Royals' bench contributed 41 of the team's 74 points.
The Eagles were led by senior forward Kate McDonald (Pennsylvania Furnace, Pa./State College), who finished with 12 points, 10 rebounds, five assists and three steals. They shot 34 percent (18-for-53) from the field, including 4-for-20 from 3-point range. Juniata won the rebounding battle, 41-25.
The Lady Royals will try for their third Landmark Conference title and 21st conference title in the program's 41-year history. A win in Saturday's championship game would also secure an automatic bid to the NCAA Division III Tournament, which would be the 27th NCAA appearance in team history.
--ROYALS--