🏀 The Scranton Lady Royals

There is so much we could go over today. The NFL playoff picture is WILD right now. College Football Saturday was awesome. The NBA has plenty of storylines. But no. We’re talking about D3 Scranton, and their Women’s Basketball Program.

Before Division 3 Scranton Women’s Basketball was set to face off against Division 1 Pitt this past weekend, the odds were not in Scranton’s favor. Before the game, the Lady Royals were given a 0.1% chance to win over Pitt.

I’m trying to think of a good comparison of what D1 to D3 really is in pro sports. Although in different divisions, D3 athletes put in a tremendous amount of time and are working just as hard as anybody else. It would be like an MLB team playing a Triple-A team, or Team USA Basketball facing off against Chile.

0.1% should tell you everything you need to know.

Coming into this game, Pitt was 2-1 and had knocked off Cornell and Mt St Mary’s, both D1 programs as well.

Often in these types of matchups, you see the underdog come out hot and with something to prove, keep it close for a bit, and then slowly lose steam as the game goes on. It was a slow first quarter, but that was in favor of Scranton. After one, they led 15-12. Close game, just one quarter, nothing too crazy.

Things got interesting in the second when the Lady Royals were FIRING on all cylinders. They were getting into their offense, hitting tough shots, and playing good defense. They took a 10-point lead into halftime.

Side note: One of the coolest things about this story right now is that if you watch the highlight video, at least at the time of writing this, it has 1.3k views. I’d rather talk about the 1.3k vid over the 1M vid any day of the week!

When they zig, we ZAG!

Here’s a link to the highlights: HERE

Whatever Pitt Head Coach Tony Verdi said at the half worked, because the third was ALL PITT. A 10-point lead turned into a 6-point deficit! Pitt won the quarter 23-7.

This was fitting the script. Underdog comes out firing early, but then everything goes back to the mean. The team that was supposed to win figures it out and comes back.

They must have known what they were doing with a 0.1% win rate

…

HA! WRONG! TAKE THAT SCRIPT AND SHOVE IT U—

(This is a PG Program, I’ll stop that sentence right there. Apologies.)

It was an entire team effort that helped mount the comeback in the fourth. Elizabeth Bennett and Sophia Talutto combined for 29 off the bench and both hit clutch shots in the fourth. Meghan Lamanna (11 points, 4 assists) and Katie Gorski (14 points, 4 assists) each put on their own respective clinics as well, and they did it when it mattered most.

With 5:19 left in the fourth, Lamanna gave Scranton the lead. They never looked back.

Awesome win for Scranton!

D3, D1, D100. Whatever!

In sports, it’s two teams playing the same sport, and anything can happen on any day, no matter what the percentages are saying!

Shoutout to the Lady Royals!