Remington Nets 18 As Royals Roll

SCRANTON, Pa. - Senior guard Stephanie Remington (Catasauqua, Pa./Catasauqua) answered the wake-up call for The University of Scranton Friday evening against Hamilton College in the opening round of the Diversified Invitational at the Long Center.

Remington scored a career-high 18 points on 7 of 12 shooting from the field as the Lady Royals erased the memory of Tuesday's Landmark Conference season-opening loss to Moravian with an impressive 66-49 victory.

Scranton, now 4-2, also received 12 points from freshman guard Megan Kopecki (Millington, N.J./Watchung Hills Regional), 10 points from senior forward Kathleen Daly (Bryn Mawr, Pa./Merion Mercy Academy), and a solid all-around effort from sophomore guard Ryan Mooney (Spring City, Pa./Pius X), who finished with nine points, eight assists, five rebounds and five steals.

Senior guard forward Pumla Sathula (Soweto, South Africa/St. Anne's-Belfield School-Va.) led the Continentals, now 3-2, with 17 points and nine rebounds. 

Remington scored eight points, including a pair of 3-pointers, during the first six minutes of the first-half to spark Scranton to an early 16-9 lead, which eventually grew to 12 points, 27-15, with 8:41 remaining.  Inspired by seven points, including a rare four-point play, by junior guard Molly Kane (Sherrill, N.Y./Vernon-Verona-Sherrill), a 3-pointer from senior guard Jess Barrows (Old Saybrook, Conn./Old Saybrook) and five points from Sathula, Hamilton closed out the first-half with a 19-5 spurt to tie the score at 33-33 by intermission. 

Remington finished with 10 points and three steals in the first-half, while Sathula had nine points, four rebounds, two assists, two steals and a block for the Continentals.

Hamilton, which turned the ball over 33 times for the game, committed six turnovers in the opening eight minutes of the second-half, which allowed the Lady Royals to build up a 10-point margin, 47-37, a lead they never relinquished.   The Continentals did manage to close the gap to nine, 49-40, with 7:07 remaining, but a pair of lay-up down low by Daly and senior forward Michelle Fabio (Brick, N.J./St. Rose), along with one of two free throws by Fabio, extended Scranton's lead to 14, 54-40, with less than six minutes remaining.  The final score was the largest margin of the game.

The Lady Royals shot 54.5 percent after intermission to finish 46.0 percent for the game and connected on 16 of 19 free throw attempts (84.2 percent).  After shooting 60 percent in the first-half, the Continentals cooled off considerably in the second-half and made only 6 of 21 field goal attempts (28.6 percent).

Remington's 18-point effort eclipses her previous-high of 16 points against the University of Rochester on November 18, 2006.  Tonight was a rematch of last year's second-round game in the NCAA tournament, where Scranton held off a second-half rally to defeat Hamilton, 58-52, on March 3 at the Long Center.

Hamilton will play Baruch College of New York City tomorrow afternoon at 5:00 p.m.  On Sunday, December 9, the Lady Royals will host Baruch at 3:00 p.m. in the final game of the Diversified Invitational.