SCRANTON — This never gets old for the University of Scranton women’s basketball team.
For the 11th straight season, the Lady Royals are Landmark Conference champions. They turned in a dominant effort from start to finish to defeat Elizabethtown College, 82-42, in the final Saturday afternoon at the John Long Center.
It is the 14th Landmark title and 32nd conference championship in program history. Scranton (27-0) earns an automatic bid to the NCAA Division III tournament. The bracket will be announced Monday afternoon.
“This is the most enjoyable day of the year from the standpoint of it’s always great to win a championship and we don’t know who we’re playing next so we have time to enjoy it,” Lady Royals coach Ben O’Brien said. “That’s a rarity during the season.”
Senior Kaci Kranson collected 26 points, 10 rebounds and five steals to earn championship game Most Valuable Player honors.
“I’ve been very lucky and grateful to be on a team with such tremendous coaches and players throughout these years,” Kranson said. “It’s bittersweet that this is the last one, but I’m extremely lucky I was able to play in such a historic program and we were able to get four Landmark championships.”
Junior Katie Gorski also had 18 points, 10 rebounds and two blocks. Junior Elizabeth Bennett added 16 points, six rebounds and two blocks. Senior Jenna Sloan handed out nine assists and senior Kaeli Romanowski had seven assists and four steals.
“Just an impressive performance by our players,” O’Brien said. “I’m continued to be amazed at how they just get after it for 40 minutes at both ends of the court. I thought, particularly, our defense set the tone as it always does. Just really proud of our team and an unbelievable game.
“One of the things that’s special about our team is on any given night, it can be a whole bunch of different players. I thought tonight a lot of players had great nights. That’s how we get the result that we get.”
Scranton never trailed. It led after one quarter, 21-12, then held Elizabethtown scoreless for the first six minutes of the second quarter to begin to pull away.
Gorski hit two free throws and Kranson had a rebound-and-basket. Gorski fed Bennett for a basket, scored herself, then kicked out a pass to Sophia Talutto for a 3-pointer that gave the Lady Royals a 32-12 lead with 4:59 left in the second.
“Elizabethtown is a very good team,” Gorski said. “We just really take pride in our defense and take it personal if someone scores on us. Just they cannot score again or score the same way they did before. Take what they’re doing offensively personally and just continue to pressure the ball and help out each other on defense. We were able to make those stops.
“Offensively, the coaches always tell us to take what the defense is giving us. If they’re giving us the 3-point shot, shoot it. If we can drive, continue to be aggressive and attack the basket. If you attack and there’s help defense, kick it out to a teammate for a shot. Always be as aggressive as we can and take what they give us.”
Makenna Mummert finally ended Elizabethtown’s dry spell. The senior, who scored her 1,000th career point in the Lady Blue Jays’ semifinal win over Susquehanna, led her team Saturday with 15 points. Allyia Kennedy added 14 points and 11 rebounds.
Leading at halftime, 36-19, the Lady Royals kept rolling in the second half. Gorski had eight points in the first five minutes of the third quarter to help increase the margin to 50-27. A 9-0 run to close the quarter — with Kranson accounting for seven of the points — gave Scranton a 62-31 lead after three.
Kranson had a strong start to the fourth, scoring nine of the Lady Royals’ first 14 points in the quarter and adding an assist. She had 18 points in the second half, and has 1,922 points for her career. She is 10 points shy of Taryn Mellody (1,932) for second place on the program scoring list. Jen Nish is the all-time leading scorer with 2,178 points.
“I was so happy to see Kaci have the second half that she did,” O’Brien said. “She draws so much attention from the other teams that at times it’s very difficult to operate out there because of how good a player she is. I just thought she did an awesome job in the second half and kept her head up. Just really proud of the way she played tonight.”
Immaculata 74, Marywood 49: At Immaculata, Marywood University had its Cinderella run end in the Atlantic East Conference championship game.
Immaculata scored the final basket of the first quarter to lead after one, 20-14. The Mighty Macs then reeled off the first 11 points of the second quarter to take control. They led, 35-19, at halftime. Marywood struggled in the second, shooting just 1 for 12 from the field, including 0 for 7 from 3-point range.
Olivia Ciullo opened the scoring in the third quarter for the Pacers to cut the deficit to 14. But they would not get any closer the rest of the way. Immaculata led, 53-34, after three quarters. Its largest lead was the final score.
Carly Coleman had 20 points and 13 rebounds to lead the Mighty Macs (24-3), who earn an automatic bid to the NCAA Division III tournament.
Megan Cavoli led Marywood (14-13) with 19 points. Anyah Ortiz followed with 18 points and Ciullo grabbed eight rebounds. The Pacers were playing in their first conference final since 1985 and were trying to reach the NCAA tournament for the first time since 1987.
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