Scranton Reporter

University of Scranton Athletics issued the following announcement on Jan. 18.

In a close back and forth game, The University of Scranton women's basketball team (13-2) held off a tough Salisbury squad for a 63-55 victory over the Sea Gulls (12-3) in non-conference action on Tuesday afternoon at the John Long Center in Scranton.

Neither team led by more than nine points until the Lady Royals stretched the lead to double digits with just over seven minutes to play.

This marked just the second all-time meeting between the two programs with the previous matchup coming on Nov. 23, 1991.

Scranton has also now won seven in a row following Tuesday's victory.

The Sea Gulls were strong out of the gate in this one and a layup from Abby Wilkinson made it 14-5 with 2:25 to play in the opening stanza before sophomore Maddie Hartnett (Chatham, N.J./Chatham) buried a three on the other end to ignite a 7-0 run and cut the deficit to two at 14-12 after one. Things were deadlocked at 16 apiece in the early stages of the second quarter when graduate student Abby Anderson (Scranton, Pa./Holy Cross) scored six straight points as part of a 9-0 run to take a 25-16 lead at the 2:28 mark. A late layup from sophomore Maddy Ryan (Malvern, Pa./Villa Maria Academy) made it 27-18 in favor of Scranton at halftime.

Salisbury would not go quietly however and Hailey Ader cut the lead to three at 34-31 with a layup with 6:10 to play in the third quarter. The two teams traded baskets for the remainder of the quarter and the Sea Gulls' Jada Welbon sank a jumper at the buzzer to cut the Lady Royals' lead to 45-42. Anderson got hot once again to start the fourth quarter as she scored the first five points including a three from the top of the key that extended the lead to eight at 50-42 with 8:16 remaining. From there, Salisbury could not get any closer than seven points and the Lady Royals led by as many as 13 on two occasions down the stretch.

Anderson scored 10 of her 16 points in the fourth quarter and also matched her career-high with 17 rebounds in the win. The Scranton native previously corralled 17 boards in a victory at Catholic on Dec. 4.

Senior Emily Shurina (East Meadow, N.Y./East Meadow) added 14 points, while Ryan chipped in with 10 points on 5-of-6 shooting and seven rebounds and junior Bridget Monaghan (Florham Park, N.J./Morristown-Beard) tallied nine points of her own.

Ryan's seven rebounds ties her previous career-high that had been set in games against Catholic and Moravian on Feb. 21 & 24, 2021.

Kaylee Otlowski paced Salisbury in the setback with a 17 point and 14 rebound performance.

On the afternoon, the Lady Royals shot 41.4% (24-of-58) from the floor and 31.3% (5-of-16) from three-point range, while the Sea Gulls were 23-of-65 (35..4%) from the field and 3-of-9 (33.3%) from deep.

Head coach Nick DiPillo's squad held a slight 43-40 edge on the glass led by Anderson's 17 boards.

The University of Scranton women's basketball team is right back in action tomorrow as they head to Moravian for a Landmark Conference matchup that will get underway at 7 p.m.

Original source can be found here.