Women's Basketball Falls to Scranton, 88-63, in NCAA Tournament

SCRANTON, Pa. -- The Bridgewater State University women's basketball team dropped an 88-63 decision to the University of Scranton in the opening round of the NCAA Division III Tournament on Friday evening.

The Lady Royals (25-3) advance to the second round, where they will face Vassar College (23-5) on Saturday at 5 p.m. in the Long Center. Vassar defeated Williams College, 76-75, in Friday night's other first-round game in the Long Center.

The visiting Bears end the season with an overall record of 16-12.

Scranton built a double-digit lead in less than four minutes and road a significant size advantage to the victory.

Junior forward Meredith Mesaris (Fairfax, Va.) scored a game-high 22 points, freshman forward Alexix Roman (Hawley, Pa.) matched her career-high with 19 points, and fellow freshman forward Sarah Payonk (Schwenksville, Pa.) added 13 points, nine rebounds, six assists, two steals and a block.

Senior guard Jenna Williamson (Ludlow, Mass.) paced the Bears with 15 points, four rebounds, three assists and four steals.  Williamson connected on 3 of 9 three-point attempts as she tied the school single-season record of 58 made trifectas set by Corey Cuddihy in 2009.

Bridgewater's all-time leading scorer, Williamson finished with 1,365 career points.  She also leaves BSU as the program's all-time leader in made three-pointers (210), three-point field goal percentage (.376), free throw percentage (.790) and games played (109).

Senior guard Elisha Homich (Ludlow, Mass.) added 11 points, three rebounds, three assists and two steals for the visitors.  Homich is ninth on the Bears' all-time scoring list with 1,090 points.

BSU senior guard Colleen Hanscom (Melrose, Mass.) chipped in with 13 points, four rebounds and three steals.

With Payonk at 6-foot and Mesaris and Roman both 6-foot-1, Scranton went right to its strength against the Bears, who had just one player in the regular rotation who stood 5-foot-10. Mesaris and Payonk combined for Scranton's first 18 points, with 13 of them coming from Mesaris as the Lady Royals had an 18-5 advantage a little more than four minutes into the game.

That's when Roman checked in for the first time, and she added six first-half points as Scranton led 48-24 at the break. She then scored 13 second-half points as the Lady Royals thwarted a Bridgewater State comeback attempt when Homich hit a trio of 3-pointers early in the second half.

The Lady Royals shot 53.3 percent (32-for-60) from the field, including 6-for-20 (30 percent) from 3-point range. They made 18 of 25 free throws (72 percent) and held a 42-32 rebounding edge. The Lady Royals had 50 points in the paint and 45 points from their bench.

Scranton is now 54-27 all-time in 27 NCAA Tournament appearances, and 35-5 all-time in NCAA Tournament games held in the Long Center. The victory marks the first time the Lady Royals have advanced past the first round since 2009, when they reached the Elite Eight.

The Bears finished 22-for-60 (36.7 percent) from the field, including 7-for-23 (30.4 percent) from 3-point range. They made 12 of 18 free throws (66.7 percent) while committing 18 turnovers to 16 for Scranton.