Scoring struggles were the undoing for the University of Scranton on Saturday, as the Lady Royals couldn’t find offense down the stretch in a 55-41 loss to Denison University in the NCAA Division III women’s basketball national championship game on Saturday afternoon.
It was a bit of a start-and-stop day for the Lady Royals, who scored just one point in the second quarter before scoring 23 of their 41 total points in the fourth quarter, including a three at the buzzer from Meghan Lamanna to give Scranton a 34-33 lead heading to the fourth quarter.
Elizabeth Bennett hit a three at the 9:03 mark to give Scranton a 39-36 lead over Denison; from there, the Lady Royals were held scoreless over the next six minutes and only managed one more basket the rest of the way.
Denison, meanwhile, went on a 19-2 run to regain the lead and put too much distance between them and Scranton for the Lady Royals to catch up.
This was the first loss of the season for the University of Scranton, who ended the 91-game winning streak of New York University on Thursday in the semifinals to reach their first Div. III title game since 1985, and second in school history.
The Royals leaned on their defense early to keep themselves in the game through some scoring woes in the first half. Denison led 11-10 after one, and was only able to stretch the lead to 19-11 at the half despite holding Scranton to just a single point in the second quarter.
Scranton woke up in the third quarter, with Kaeli Romanowski tying the game at 23 with a layup and then putting Scranton ahead for the first time since the opening few minutes of the game with a layup.
The two teams traded the lead back-and-forth until Lamanna’s three at the buzzer put Scranton ahead by one heading to the fourth.
As a team, Scranton shot just over 20% from the floor, under 20% from deep and shot their free throws at a 42.9% clip.
Lamanna and Kaci Kranson each had 10 points to lead the Lady Royals; Kranson became just the second player in program history to score 2,000 career points.
Romanowski and Bennett each added nine points, with Romanowski proving to be a force on the boards with 17 rebounds (eight on the offensive glass).
Denison’s Abby Cooch led all scorers with 18 points. Ada Taute chipped in 15 points to help lead Denison to the national title. This was the first-ever appearance in the national title game for the Big Red, whose 30 total wins set a school record
Scranton ends the year with a 32-1 overall record including the postseason, setting a new program record for wins in a season, with the aforementioned streak-ending win over NYU as well as a win over Div. I Pitt on the resume.