WILKES-BARRE – No. 3 University of Scranton raced out to a 33-11 halftime lead and never looked back holding Wilkes University to nine made field goals in the contest on way to a 78-42 victory on the second day of the Cross County Challenge at King's College's Scandlon Gymnasium Sunday afternoon.
 
Wilkes fell to 3-3 overall following the non-conference defeat while Scranton remained unbeaten moving to 4-0 overall on the year after recording a pair of wins at the event.
 
Scranton jumped out to a 9-0 lead just five minutes into the first quarter forcing a Wilkes timeout and an uphill battle for the remainder of the contest. The Royals lead grew to 17-2 at the end of the first with Wilkes' lone bucket coming on a jumper from Vanessa Whitecavage (Shenandoah, PA/Marian Catholic).
 
Two free throws from Gabby Smicherko (Edwardsville, PA/Wyoming Valley West) followed by a Kendra Smith (Hughesville, PA/Hughesville) jump shot brought the Colonels to 26-6 with just under four minutes left in the half. Scranton answered with back-to-back scores in transition and before Smith added a single free throw with :32 left as Wilkes trailed by 22 at the break.
 
Scranton push the game out of reach in the third quarter outscoring Wilkes 26-13 in the frame before the Colonels finished the fourth quarter with 18 of its final 42 points thanks to a game-high eight tallies from freshman Macy Berryman (Stroudsburg, PA/Pocono Mountain East) in the stanza.
 
Smicherko finished with seven points and six rebounds on way to being named to the All-Tournament team. Smith, Brianna Horton (Verona, NJ/Verona) and Ariel Reed (Woodbury, PA/Northern Bedford) each added five points.
 
As a team Wilkes struggled shooting from the floor finishing 9-for-47 (19.1 percent) and 4-for-26 from long range. The Colonels scored 20 of their 42 points from the charity stripe shooting 74.1 percent from the line throughout. Wilkes also committed a season-high 28 turnovers.
 
Scranton saw four players reach double figures led by Emily Shurina's 13 points on 4-of-8 shooting from behind the arc.
 
Wilkes remains idle through the Thanksgiving holiday week before returning to non-conference play Wednesday, December 4 when the Colonels host Gwynedd-Mercy University at 7:00 p.m. at the Marts Center.