Box Score
Scranton, PA – Megan Kopecki scored a game-high 21 points to lead the University of Scranton to a 65-54 victory of Marywood University in non-conference women's basketball action on Saturday afternoon. The Royals improve to 6-2 on the season with the win while the Pacers will head into the semester break with a 6-4 mark.
Scranton scored the first four points of Saturday's contest before Marywood rallied to tie the score on back to back field goals by Mariah Schaeffer (Bainbridge, NY) and Jillian Flanagan (Monroe, NY). The Royals' Courtney Roselle (Cedar Grove, NJ) converted a lay-up at the 16:41 mark to put the visitors back in front, a lead they would not relinquish, and would stretch to as many as nine with 1:05 to play on a Kopecki (Millington, NJ) bucket. Flanagan scored on a lay-up with 28 seconds to play to make the score 27-20 in favor of Scranton at halftime.
The Royals shot 34.6 percent from the floor in the first period including a 4-11 clip from three-point range and were led by Jennifer King's (Taylor, PA) nine points. Marywood shot 33.3 percent from the field in the opening twenty minutes of play and were paced by Marielle Thorsen's (Belvidere, NJ) seven points.
Scranton scored the first six points of the second half to hold a 33-20 lead early in the second half, but Marywood cut their deficit to seven points on a lay-up by Schaeffer with 16:52 to play. The Royals responded with a key, 14-3 run over the next seven-plus minutes to hold a 49-31 advantage with 9:19 to play. The Pacers fought hard and narrowed the gap to seven points with 2:12 to play on a pair of free throws by Schaeffer, but the 18-point deficit proved to be too much to overcome.
Kopecki led all scorers with 21 points on 7 of 17 shooting from the floor and making all seven of her free throw attempts. Sarah Gage (Ledgewood, NJ) and Jennifer King each added 10 points for the Royals, who shot 38.2 percent from the field, 29.4 percent from three point range and 81.8 percent from the free throw line. Roselle pulled down a game-high eight rebounds for Scranton.
Schaeffer led Marywood with 16 points and added seven rebounds while Thorsen finished with 13 points. The Pacers shot 35.8 percent for the game including 37.3 percent from beyond the arc and 58.8 from the charity stripe. Marywood out-rebounded the Royals 38-37, but turned the ball over 22 times versus 16 for Scranton.
The Pacers will return to the court on January 4th when they play host to Lycoming College in a non-conference tilt scheduled to tip-off at 6:00 p.m. in the Insalaco Arena.
