SCRANTON, Pa.  — The Catholic women's basketball team traveled to Scranton trying to win the Landmark for the fourth time in program history and earn an automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament. The Royals offense was extremely efficient in the first half, building up a 30 point halftime lead to help win their 10th consecutive Landmark Championship, 85-62.

In the first quarter, both teams were finding their footing and Kerry Flaherty knocked down a three for the Cardinals to make it 16-10 with 2:13 left. Elizabeth Bennett scored two buckets in the final two minutes to put Scranton on top by double digits heading into the second. The Royals dominated the second quarter, outscoring the Cardinals 27-7 to get out to a 30 point advantage going into the half time break. Scranton shot 9-for-17 (53%) in the quarter and knocked down five three pointers while also holding Catholic to 3-for-14 (21%) from the field.

The Cardinals found some success offensively in the third quarter, especially from beyond the arc as they shot 4-for-8 from deep with three coming from Flaherty and one from Olivia Boccella. Despite the better offensive numbers, the lead was too large for Catholic to overcome and they fell to the Royals for the third time this season.

Flaherty and Carly Mulvaney both led the Cardinals in scoring with 15 points each. Flaherty added five more threes to her single-season conference leading total which now sits at 81. Her 43.3% three point percentage ranks in the top 15 in the country. 

The Cardinals are now 14-11 all-time in the Landmark Conference tournament and 3-7 all time against Scranton.

Catholic will now wait and see where they will be heading for the upcoming NCAA Tournament with the selection show coming Monday, March 3 at 2:30 pm.