BEYOND THE SCOREBOARD
An occasional sports feature highlighting the unique stories of local athletes.
Division III basketball teams aren’t supposed to beat Division I opponents.
The University of Scranton women’s team didn’t believe that Sunday, even though ESPN gave the Royals a .1% chance of beating the University of Pittsburgh.
Scranton entered Pitt’s arena as the underdog — and left with an upset and the attention of national media and new fans.
"This is why we love sports!" ESPN posted on social media after the victory, noting that the "improbable is not impossible."
“I think we were all just so excited about this opportunity, because it's just an awesome one, and definitely one we're going to remember forever. We were ready to get there, get after it,” said guard Meghan Lamanna, who contributed 11 points and four assists in the 69-63 victory. “A win is a win, no matter who we play. The fact that it was a DI school was pretty cool.”
While Scranton has become a powerhouse in women’s basketball, winning 10-straight Landmark Conference titles and amassing a record of 85-6 over the last three years, Division III basketball rarely gets the attention that Division I programs receive.
News of the upset spread quickly, with social media posts questioning how the Royals did it — and joking about whether Dunder Mifflin or Michael Scott sponsor the team — references to the hit sitcom “The Office,” set in the city.
Web traffic on the university's athletics website — athletics.scranton.edu — saw a 248% rise in visitors on Sunday, compared to the Sunday prior. “Scranton women’s basketball” saw at least a 10-year high for trending on Google — the longest the search engine has statistics available.
“That part of it was totally unexpected,” said Head Coach Ben O’Brien, as the team prepared to practice Tuesday night. “It's been somewhat of a whirlwind over the last 24 to 48 hours for everyone involved, but it's been very exciting for our team, for our program and for our university to get recognized the way that it has over the last few days. So we're very proud of that. It was a tremendous experience for all of us, and one we'll never forget.”
Playing against a team in the ACC
The teams scheduled the exhibition game because Pitt had an open spot on its schedule, and Pitt Assistant Coach Abby Anderson previously played for Scranton.
The bus trip to Pittsburgh included both nerves and excitement for the Royals. Though Pitt hasn’t had a winning record since the 2014-15 season, Division I players are often faster, stronger and taller. The Royals knew they’d have to play with both “skill and heart” to overcome any differences.
“We looked at it like any other game in terms of how we prepared for it. Obviously, we knew the players were likely going to be bigger and faster than the players that we're accustomed to playing, but once we got out there on the court with them, we really didn't think there was that that much of a difference, and our team just played really well together,” said O’Brien, who achieved a 347-43 record coaching girls basketball at Dunmore High School before moving to the collegiate level in 2022.
The Royals played in the 12,508-seat Petersen Events Center, where Pitt will host Atlantic Coast Conference opponents, such as Duke, Stanford, Syracuse and Florida State, later this season. The arena has more than five times the seating capacity of the John Long Center on Scranton’s campus.
Shot selection, accuracy key in Scranton victory over Pitt
Scranton took a 15-12 lead after the first quarter and extended the lead to 37-27 at halftime.
Pitt responded with an 11-0 run to move into the lead heading into the fourth quarter. Scranton answered with back-to-back baskets from Sophia Talutto, a freshman from Dunmore, and junior Katie Gorski, from Pine Brook, New Jersey, and regained momentum.
“Our shot selection was very good,” said Gorski, a 6-foot forward, who guarded a 6-foot-5-inch opponent. “We weren't forcing up any bad shots. We were getting wide open threes, wide open layups. The correlation between the shot selection and then us making our shots is very evident, and just working hard on defense, like we always do, like getting stops and steals.”
Gorski recorded a double-double — 11 points and 10 rebounds — in the victory. Overall, Scranton made 40.9% of its field goal attempts and made 19 points off turnovers. Players who came off the bench scored 29 points.
“The bus ride home was one of those bus rides that you'll never forget. It's one of the great joys of coaching when you know that players have put in a ton of work to something,” O’Brien said. “To experience that kind of success, to hear them celebrate and enjoy the ride back was what it's really all about.”
Keeping momentum as Landmark Conference play begins
The Royals started practice with running and high-speed passing and shooting drills Tuesday night.
Along with Talutto, Northeast Pennsylvania players on the roster include All-Conference honoree Kaeli Romanowski, a senior from Western Wayne; Kaci Kranson, a senior from Holy Cross who received All-American Second Team honors and won Landmark Player of the Year last season; and sophomore Elyse Montgomery, a Honesdale High School graduate.
They hope for another bid to the NCAA Division III Tournament this year, after making it to the Elite Eight the last two seasons. The website D3Hoops.com ranks the Royals No. 2 in the country.
Scranton faces its first conference opponent away on Wednesday night, traveling to Drew University in Madison, New Jersey.
“We're just taking it practice by practice, game by game,” said Lamanna, an occupational therapy major from New Providence, New Jersey. “We're just going to keep going after it, and there's bigger and better things to come for us.”
Players hope to build on the experience in Pittsburgh — and hope the new fans follow along.
“We need to play with that intensity no matter who we're playing … we can't settle for Pitt," said Gorski, a business marketing major. "We need to be playing like every single team is a DI team.”
