SCRANTON, Pa. – The University of Scranton women's basketball team (26-2) outscored the New Jersey City University Gothic Knights (13-10) by a 37-21 margin in the second half en route to a 69-47 victory in an NCAA Tournament First Round game on Friday night at the John Long Center in Scranton.

The Lady Royals will take on Babson for a spot in the Sweet 16 on Saturday night with tip time in the Long Center slated for 6 p.m. Babson was a 79-66 winner over SUNY New Paltz earlier in the day.

Junior guard Bridget Monaghan (Florham Park, N.J./Morristown-Beard) hit a three in the final seconds of the first half to give Scranton a 32-26 lead headed into the locker room and set the stage for the big second half.

Both teams got off to a sluggish start offensively in the first quarter as a Monaghan layup gave the Lady Royals a 9-7 lead at the 1:53 mark before the Gothic Knights scored the final five points of the quarter to take a 12-9 lead after one. In the second quarter, a three-pointer from graduate student Abby Anderson (Scranton, Pa./Holy Cross) opened up a 20-16 edge for the hosts with 5:57 to play, but NJCU battled back to cut the lead to 25-24 just over two minutes later. From there, the Lady Royals held on to the lead before Monaghan's afore-mentioned three made it a six point game at halftime.

Junior Kyra Quigley (Drexel Hill, Pa./Sacred Heart Academy Bryn Mawr) opened the scoring in the second half with consecutive layups and hit another one at the 5:39 mark to cap a 10-0 run and give Scranton a 42-26 lead. The Gothic Knights were unable to slice the lead into single digits the rest of the way as the Lady Royals held a 50-34 lead at the end of three quarters. A pair of free throws from junior Hannah Angelini (Baldwin Place, N.Y./Somers) gave Scranton their largest lead of the night at 64-40 with 3:03 remaining and the hosts were able to preserve the victory over the final few minutes.

NJCU was making their first tournament appearance in program history.

Anderson led the Lady Royals with 22 points and 10 rebounds, while Monaghan added 14 and Quigley contributed with a season-high 12 points to go along with seven rebounds.

Damaris Rodriguez paced the Gothic Knights with a game-high 24 points in the setback.

Scranton shot 43.5% (27-of-62) from the floor and 43.8% (7-of-16) from three-point range, while NJCU was 21-of-60 (35.0%) from the field and 4-of-21 (19.0%) from deep. Head coach Nick DiPillo's squad also held a 41-36 edge in the rebounding battle led by 11 from senior Emily Shurina (East Meadow, N.Y./East Meadow).

Saturday will mark the fourth ever meeting between the Lady Royals and Babson, but the first since Dec. 29, 2014.

--LADY ROYALS--