SCRANTON, PA – In a game that figured to be tight and low-scoring, it was #5/#3 Scranton edging #14/#17 Johns Hopkins, 52-46, in the round of the 16 of the 2025 NCAA Division III Women's Basketball Tournament Friday night at the John Long Center.  The Royals (29-1) advance to the Sectional Final, where they will take on Wisconsin-Stout.  Johns Hopkins finishes the season at 24-5.
 
The Royals entered the game averaging 79.6 points per game, but trailed 34-31 entering the fourth quarter as the Blue Jay defense, which entered the game allowing just 50 points per outing, was on-point.
 
It was a 6-0 Scranton run to open the final period that turned the three-point deficit into a three-point lead for the Royals. Scranton went inside to grab the lead for good as they used quarter-opening layups from Maddie Hartnett, Kaci Kranson and Kyra Quigley in the first 2:09 of the period to take a 37-34 lead.
 
The Blue Jays were still within two at 39-37 after a Macie Feldman free throw with 6:38 on the clock, but the Royals responded with a 9-2 spurt over the next 3:43 to extend their lead to a game-high nine at 48-39.  Hartnett scored five points to fuel the run, during which the Blue Jays managed just a Kendall Dunham layup.
 
Scranton appeared to have the game well in-hand after a Kranson backdoor layup on an inbounds play with 46 seconds remaining, but Hopkins answered with a Layla Henderson layup 17 seconds later and quickly followed with a steal and Michaela O'Neil layup to pull within four (50-46) with 27 seconds remaining.
 
Kranson hit a pair of free throws down the stretch and the Blue Jays went empty on their final two possessions to account for the 52-46 final score.
 
Early on, it was Johns Hopkins that was quick out of the gate as the Blue Jays sprinted to a nine-point first-quarter lead (19-10).  After evenly splitting the first 16 points of the game, Johns Hopkins used a 11-2 run to turn an 8-8 tie into the 19-10 lead.  Five different players scoring during the run for the Blue Jays with Jadyn Murray finishing off a pair of shots in the paint to fuel the spree.  The Blue Jays hit 5-of-6 shots from the floor and limited the Royals to just one basket on six shots to grab the lead.
 
A 19-12 lead at the end of the first quarter was gone in just over 90 seconds in the second quarter as Meghan Lamanna and Kranson drained three-pointers and Quigley added a layup in a lightning-quick 8-0 run for the Royals.

Two of the top 15 scoring defenses in the nation then took over as the 20-19 Scranton lead held for nearly seven minutes before a Henderson layup gave the Jays a 21-20 lead that was extended to 23-20 on an O'Neil layup with 1:03 on the second-quarter clock.  A late Scranton bucket accounted for a 23-22 halftime score.
 
Despite holding Scranton to just 4-of-16 shooting in the third quarter, the Blue Jays only extended their lead by a point by the end of 30 minutes.  Johns Hopkins never trailed in the period and the Jays were up by five at 34-29 after a Feldman layup, but the only scoring in the final two minutes of the period was a Kranson floater that set the stage for a fourth quarter that saw the Royals outscore the Blue Jays 21-12 to secure the victory.
 
Feldman was the only Blue Jay to score in double figures as she punched up a team-high 13 points and added eight rebounds.  O'Neil (9), Henderson (8) , Dunham (6) and Murray (6) helped lead a balanced effort for the Blue Jays, who held advantages in second-chance points (14-12), fastbreak points (9-2) and bench scoring (10-6).
 
Scranton got 13 points and six rebounds from Quigley and 11 points and 10 rebounds from Kranson in the win.  The Royals collected 19 assists on 23 field goals and scored 36 of their 52 points in the paint.

Notes:  The seniors on the Johns Hopkins team – O'Neil, Murray, Greta Miller and Natalie Mann – end their career with a 93-21 record during their four years.  The 93 wins are tied for the most by a class in program history.