The Cardinals and Saints are marching into the Div. III NCAA dance in March. Women basketball players at Catholic and Marymount universities won their respective conference titles Feb. 23 and automatic bids to tournament.
Catholic needed a second half rally to top Scranton 72-52 and continue its greatest season ever at 26-1. MU beat Mary Washington 72-52 and returns to the NCAAs for the first time since 2010.
Down 35-31 at the half, the host Cardinals played a stingy second half defense holding SU to 14 percent field goal shooting (five of 35) and blocked six shots in the half.
Emily Grabiak scored 16 of her career-high 22 points after the break, including eight of 10 free throw shooting.
Katarina Owunna scored 10 points, grabbed six rebounds and had four blocks, all in the second period. Jill Woerner tallied 17 points, collected nine boards.
Scranton fell to 19-8 and will have to await the tournament selection committee’s decision to see if it advances to the NCAA playoffs.
Marymount beat rival Mary Washington 53-42. The Saints 12th title is more than double the next representative in the Capital Athletic Conference.
The Saint (23-4) advances to the NCAA Tournament for the 17th time in program history. Katelyn Fischer MU with 18 points. Tynishia Parks added 14 rebounds.
Robinson High grad Sam Partonen led MWU (20-7) with 13 points.
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