SCRANTON, Pa. - Senior guard Bridgette Mann (Canadensis, Pa./Wallenpaupack) scored a game-high 18 points to lead the way, as the University of Scranton women's basketball team rolled to a 70-58 win over King's on Friday evening as part of the 2018 Cross County Challenge at Marywood.

Scranton, who is ranked seventh in the WBCA Top 25 and eighth in d3hoops.com Top 25, open their 2018-19 season with a 1-0 record with the win. King's dropped to 1-1 with the defeat.

In the opening frame of the contest, things were tight between the squads, as a lay-in by junior Emily Sheehan (Dunmore, Pa./Dunmore)with six seconds left in the quarter gave Scranton a 16-13 lead after the first 10 minutes of action. The second quarter, however, saw the Lady Royals open the game up.

After having their lead cut down to 16-14 on a made free throw by King's early in the second quarter, the Lady Royals went on a 13-0 run over a four-minute span to take a 29-14 lead with five minutes to go in the first half.

Despite seeing King's go on a run of their own to cut their lead back to single digits (32-25 with 2:44 left), Scranton ended the period with a 7-2 run of their own to take a 39-27 lead into intermission.

To open the third quarter, the Lady Royals picked up where they left off, opening the quarter on an 11-2 spurt to take a what turned out to be insurmountable 50-29 lead with five minutes to go in the period. After extending the lead out to 54-33 with three minutes left, King's did end the period on a high note, as they sliced the Scranton lead down to 54-42 entering the fourth after a 9-0 spurt.

In the final period, Scranton quickly went back up 16 (58-42), but King's did not go away without a fight in the game, as they eventually cut the Lady Royals lead to six points with 1:39 minutes left in regulation (64-58).

However, it was too little, too late for King's, as the Lady Royals salted the game away at the free throw line over the final moments to take a 12-point victory.

Overall in the victory, Mann led the way for the Lady Royals in the first game of her senior campaign, scoring 18 points after sinking four three-pointers. Mann also grabbed five rebounds and dished out three assists in the win, as well.

Elsewhere, freshman forward Hannah Kowalski (Clarks Summit, Pa./Abington Heights) was impressive in the first game action of her collegiate career, as she came off the bench and scored 16 points on 6-of-9 shooting from the floor. Kowalski also pulled down five rebounds, dished out a pair of assists, and had a steal in the win, as well.

Rounding out the top scorers for Scranton was junior guard Makenzie Mason (Doylestown, Pa./Central Bucks West), who finished the night with a double-double after scoring 12 points and pulling down a team-high 10 rebounds.

Mason also led the Lady Royals defense in the win, blocking five shots (matching a career-high), as the unit held King's to just 29.9 percent shooting from the floor in the win.

The University of Scranton women's basketball team returns to action on Saturday, as they finish up the 2018 Cross County Challenge with another game at Marywood against Wilkes. Action gets underway at 2 p.m.

--LADY ROYALS--