WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Catholic University women's basketball team dropped a hard-fought battle on Saturday afternoon to nationally-ranked Scranton.

The game was tight throughout and Catholic (10-3, 1-1 LC) led in the fourth quarter before the sixth-ranked team in the country went on a 23-12 run to close out the game and win by 10.

Erin Doherty led the Cardinals with 14 points and eight rebounds while Carly Mulvaney and Sarah White provided good minutes off the bench, chipping in with nine and seven points respectively. Keegan Douglas also scored nine while Rachel Bussanich contributed eight.

The Cardinals began the game on the front foot, pulling out to an early 9-4 lead before the Royals put together a 16-4 run of their own en route to a 20-15 lead at the end of the first quarter.

Scranton (13-0, 2-0 LC) was able to push its lead to 12 in the second quarter, but Catholic did well to cut the deficit to just five at halftime.

Matt Donohue's team continued to chip away, cutting the lead to just three after the third quarter before scoring the first four points of the fourth quarter to take the lead. A Doherty layup with 8:31 remaining in the final stanza gave the Cardinals their first lead since an 11-8 advantage less than four minutes into the game.

Catholic struggled from beyond the three-point line, only connecting on 3-of-16 total attempts throughout the contest, whereas Scranton excelled from beyond the arc, knocking down seven of its 15 total three-point field goals.

The Royals also found their way to the free-throw line 18 times, cashing in on 14 of those attempts, while the Cardinals struggled at the charity stripe with a clip of just 6-for-11. Catholic outrebounded Scranton 43-38.

Bridget Monaghan put together an impressive performance for the Royals, leading all scorers with 21 points while also grabbing eight rebounds and providing three assists. Maddy Ryan was one rebound shy of a double-double as she scored 15 points and gathered nine rebounds.

Catholic now faces a quick turn around as it travels to Goucher in three days' time. The Cardinals will do battle with the Gophers on Tuesday night at 7 p.m.