Center Valley, PA, (February 12, 2005) – The DeSales University women’s basketball team fell just short for the second time this season in its upset bid of the University of Scranton, losing to the Lady Royals, 63-59, in Freedom Conference action in front of a packed house in Billera Hall on Saturday afternoon.

 

        The win gives Scranton (21-1, 12-0 Freedom) head coach Mike Strong his 600^th career win, making him just the third coach in NCAA Division III women’s basketball history to win 600+ games.  The loss drops the Bulldogs to 17-6 overall and 8-4 in the Freedom.

 

        The Lady Royals took control of the game in the first half on the strength of a 12-0 run turning a tie game at 17 into a 29-17 lead for UofS with 4:45 left to play in the opening half.  The Bulldogs cut the margin to eight points with 2:29 remaining before heading into the locker rooms down 10 at 34-24.

 

        The second-half turned into a classic Freedom Conference battle.  The start of the half was back and forth with Scranton going up 12 points once again before sophomore Taryn Mellody hit a jumper to push the lead to 13 points at 41-28 with 15:50 left.  The Bulldogs answered using a 15-1 run over the next five minutes to take its first lead since the opening half, 43-42, with 11:20 remaining.  Five different Bulldogs scored during the run as senior Holly Liebl (Kutztown, PA/Kutztown) led the charge with six points including a lay-up to give DSU the lead.

 

        A free throw by the Lady Royal’s Allison Matt tied it at 43, before Alyssa Antolick (Bethlehem, PA/Bethlehem Catholic) converted a lay-up to make it a 45-43 DeSales lead.  Over the next three minutes the game was tied on three different occasions until the tie was broken by a Matt three-pointer, giving Scranton a three-point edge with just over eight minutes left to play.

 

        The lead swelled to five points and continued to be five at 58-53 with 2:57 on the clock before consecutive lay-ups from Liebl and sophomore Kirby Lutz (Easton, PA/Pen Argyl) cut the deficit to one point, 58-57, with 2:11 remaining.

 

        After a Scranton timeout, the Lady Royals found Mellody wide open on the right wing and she buried a trey to make it a four-point game, 61-57, with 1:43 to go.  Consecutive three-point misses on the other end forced the Bulldogs hand on defense, but after working the shot clock down to under five ticks, Matt found Eileen Webster under the hoop for a lay-up and Scranton had escaped with the road win.

 

        Liebl set a new career-high for the second straight time vs. the Lady Royals with 23 points and 13 rebounds.  She now has nine double-doubles this season.  Antolick finished with 15 points despite playing most of the game in foul trouble and Lutz totaled 12 points and six rebounds in the loss.

 

        Mellody led the charge for Scranton as she posted a double-double with 25 points and 10 rebounds.  Matt added 17 points and Webster totaled 12 tallies and eight rebounds in the win.  All of Scranton’s points came from its starting five players.