MADISON, N.J. - The Drew University women's basketball team nearly upset 17th-ranked Scranton, but the Royals rallied for a 71-63 overtime victory in a Landmark Conference (LC) thriller Wednesday evening in Baldwin gym.

Junior guard Joey Meyers posted 25 points and nine rebounds for the Rangers (14-6,5-6 LC), who played without their third-leading scorer, senior guard Sekya Campbell, for the second game in a row. Senior center Erin Frederick added 20 points while senior forward Cecelia Kracht contributed seven rebounds and three steals. Junior guard Gwen Alberici chipped in with five assists and three steals for Drew, which erased a six-point deficit early in the fourth quarter.

Bridget Monaghan scored 23 points to lead the conference-leading Royals (20-2, 11-0 LC) while Abby Anderson posted 15 points and 17 rebounds.

The Rangers were playing their first overtime game since a 76-67 win over Catholic on Feb. 22, 2020.


Drew led 61-57 after Meyers converted a fastbreak lay-up with 51 seconds left. But Scranton scored the final four points of regulation, including a lay-up from Anderson that tied it with nine seconds left. Meyers got off a shot in the closing seconds, but her off-balance 3-pointer was off the mark.

The Royals scored the first seven points in the extra session to go up 68-61 with 2:29 remaining. Junior guard Kyra Mann stopped the run when she hit a pair of free throws with 2:06 showing to cut the gap to five, but it would turn out to be the Rangers' final points of the night. 

Drew stopped Scranton on the ensuing possession, but after the Rangers missed a shot, Monaghan was fouled on a 3-pointer with 31 ticks showing. She would go on to make all three shots to set the final score.

The Rangers led for most of the first quarter, but the Royals used an 11-1 run late in the period to establish the lead and the visitors led 16-12 at the end of the stanza.

After Scranton led by as much as nine early in the second quarter, Drew rallied with a 10-0 ruin to reclaim the lead. Meyers and Frederick capped the surge with back-to-back conventional 3-point plays. A floater from Mann just beat the buzzer and the Rangers trailed just 28-27 at the break.

The Blue and Green carried their momentum into the second half, opening with a 7-0 run to go up by six. Frederick scored four points during the surge while Mann knocked down a 3-pointer. Scranton rallied to take the lead, but Drew made it a one-point game (46-45) at the end of the quarter when Kracht finished off a fast break with a lay-up just before the buzzer.

Scranton opened the fourth quarter on a 7-2 spurt to go ahead by six (53-47) with 7:08 left. But that's when the Rangers answered with a crucial 8-0 surge to take a two-point lead with 4:01 remaining. Frederick started the run with a conventional 3-point play, and Meyers capped it with a lay-up to put her team up 55-53.

Meyers hit a pair of free throws to put Drew on top 57-54 with 2:47 left, but Monaghan tied it with a 3-pointer. Frederick and Meyers would score consecutive lay-ups to give the Rangers their late four-point lead before Scranton knocked down a jumper to make it a two-point game. Drew then missed a pair of free throws with 23 seconds left before Anderson's game-tying bucket.

Drew returns to action on Saturday, when it travels to Juniata for another Landmark Conference match-up starting at 4 p.m.