SALEM, Virginia — University of Scranton women’s basketball coach Ben O’Brien knew a response was coming. A team doesn’t win 91 straight games without trying to mount a comeback.
Sure enough, NYU opened the third quarter with a run that narrowed a 12-point halftime deficit down to three. But following a timeout, the Lady Royals had their own response. They weathered the storm and subsequent others the rest of the way to earn a 60-52 victory Thursday night in the NCAA Division III women’s basketball semifinals at Roanoke College’s Cregger Center.
Meghan Lamanna led the Lady Royals (32-0) with 18 points. Kaeli Romanowski, who earlier Thursday was named a Women’s Basketball Coaches Association All-American honorable mention, totaled 14 points, 16 rebounds, two assists and five steals. Elizabeth Bennett chipped in 10 points, all coming in the first half, as Scranton advanced to the championship game Saturday at 4 p.m. against Denison University. The Big Red advanced with an 82-61 triumph over Wisconsin-Oshkosh in Friday’s first semifinal.
Scranton also halted NYU’s 91-game winning streak, which was the second-longest in NCAA basketball history, men’s or women’s. And, it denied the Violets’ bid for a third straight national championship.
Instead, the Lady Royals will play for their second title in program history; the first came in 1985.
“Just a total team effort. Incredibly proud of players,” O’Brien said. “We knew at some point there was going to be a punch thrown at us throughout the game and obviously there were many thrown by NYU. But I was most proud of how we responded to that. NYU is a great team, hats off to them they were really, really tough. Watching our players overcome adversity, something talked about all season long, to see them in the biggest moment so far this season respond the way we did, I couldn’t be more proud of them.”
Caroline Peper had 19 points for NYU (29-1). Olivia Lagao followed with 14 points and Yasmene Clark grabbed 10 rebounds.
“Credit to Scranton, I thought they got out from the jump,” NYU coach Meg Barber said. “We were kind of playing from behind, which is a little unusual for our team. I thought we showed a lot of resilience and really hung in for four solid quarters.”
This was a highly anticipated matchup and it lived up to its billing.
A dominant first half where Scranton totally frustrated NYU saw it build a 15-point lead. But Brooke Batchelor hit a 3-pointer right before the buzzer to cut the Lady Royals’ advantage to 30-18 at halftime and give the Violets momentum heading into the locker room.
“It gave us a little life. Momentum is a tough word,” Barber said. “I think our offense felt a little bit stagnant, a little bit tight. Credit Scranton for that. I thought they took away some of the looks we normally get. Maybe their ball pressure, we didn’t quite get to our spots as we normally do.”
NYU came out and scored 10 of the first 11 points to close within 31-28 with 5:47 left in the third quarter. Lagao capped the run with a 3-pointer.
O’Brien called a timeout, and coming out of that timeout, Lamanna hit a 3-pointer to get the Lady Royals back on track.
“During the timeout we talked things over and how we needed to get stops and get our momentum back,” Lamanna said. “When I had a little bit of space, I shot it and I feel like that kind of got us going a little bit.”
Sophia Talutto followed with a pull-up jumper. After a three-point play by Peper, the Lady Royals closed the quarter with a 9-2 burst. Gorski scored off a feed from Lamanna, Romanowski had a layup and Lamanna hit a shot in the lane. After a layup by Peper, Talutto nailed a 3-pointer and Kaci Kranson scored off a steal by Romanowski to give Scranton a 47-34 lead entering the fourth to the delight of their large contingent of fans. Included in the crowd was Scranton’s men’s lacrosse team, who played Tuesday in Sewanee, Tennessee, and stopped on their way back north to support the Lady Royals.
“The environment here was just great. The vibes were very good,” Lamanna said. “We had so much support from our families and the lacrosse team, a bunch of coaches from our athletic department. It made it really, really fun. We made it a point obviously to work hard in the beginning, but we also took time to soak it all in.”
The margin was still 13 points, 52-39, when NYU made one more comeback effort. Batchelor putback a rebound and Lagao hit a 3-pointer to cut the deficit to 52-44 with 5:39 left. However, the Violets committed turnovers on their next two possessions and weren’t able to draw closer. Romanowski scored on a layup to make it 54-44 with 5:03 left.
“I thought that was the critical point,” Barber said. “We’d love to have those back. We had tired players out there who were working their butts off on defense. You wish you had about 14 timeouts when they’re giving that much effort. Those are 1-and-0 play opportunities and we missed out on a couple of them.”
Lagao sank two of three free throws, but Romanowski followed by scoring off a Talutto steal.
Peper and Lagao hit 3-pointers to make it 56-52 with 45.1 seconds left. But four foul shots — one by Talutto , two by Lamanna and one by Katie Gorski — sealed it for Scranton and touched off a wild celebration.
“The program here, there’s just such an emphasis to work hard,” Lamanna said. “A big part of it is also enjoying it. I enjoyed all the workouts, all the extra work, everything like that. It’s all for moments like this.”
Eight seconds seconds into the game, NYU scored on a 3-pointer by Peper. After that, however, the Scranton defense took charge. It forced the Violets to shoot 1 for 13 the rest of the quarter and commit four turnovers.
“We pride ourselves on defense and keeping ourselves composed when we’re creating chaos on the defensive end,” Romanowski said. “It was our relentlessness and willing to get back up when they were throwing punches and scoring. We tried our best to make them shoot over us and not have easier shots. Just making them work for every single shot they were taking.”
Peper thought she and her teammates were getting shots. They just didn’t fall.
“They rolled off the rim or maybe we had a little bit of contact or not,” Peper said. “But there were big bodies in there and ultimately we missed shots around the rim we normally make.”
That allowed the Lady Royals offense to get going. Romanowski hit a layup, Lamanna canned a 3-pointer before Bennett had consecutive baskets to make it 9-3 with 4:17 left in the first. After a jumper by Batchelor, Bennett scored inside again before 3-pointers by Kranson and Lamanna gave Scranton a 17-5 lead after one.
“Just like every other game, I like to come off the bench as a spark, a second source of energy for my team,” Bennett said. “If the shot presents itself, do my part to take it.”
In the second quarter, Zahra Alexander banked in a 3-pointer to bring NYU within 19-11. But Scranton responded with an 11-4 run to extend its lead to 30-15 before Batchelor hit her 3-pointer to make it a 12-point game at halftime.
Now, only Denison stands in the Lady Royals’ way of a national championship.
“All season, it’s been a next-play mentality, next-play speed, one play at a time and give everything we have for 40 minutes,” O’Brien said. “We take that approach not only in the game, but in the preparation. We’ll move on from this game quickly and get totally dialed in to what we need to do on Saturday.”
Denison 82, Wisconsin-Oshkosh 61: In the first semifinal, Denison jumped out to a 20-2 lead and never looked back to advance to Saturday’s final.
Five players scored in double figures for the Big Red (29-2) with Abby Cooch and Brooke Toigo finishing with 13 points each. Ada Taute added 12 points, Adelyn Moore contributed 11 points and Anelly Mad-toingue wound up with 10 points.
Sammi Beyer led Oshkosh (28-4) with 13 points.
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