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| This Scranton team is 30-0 and absolutely loaded with talent. |
I have to admit that I never thought I'd still be blogging at this particular juncture of the 2025-26 season yet here we are as Concordia punched its ticket to the Elite 8 late yesterday afternoon with a 64-59 victory over Johns Hopkins. So let's take a look at this Elite 8 matchup against perennial powerhouse Scranton tonight.
Concordia vs Scranton (at Scranton, PA 6:00 PM Central time)
I honestly don't know if there's enough superlatives available to describe this Scranton team that the Cobbers will face tonight at the Long Center; the Royals home floor with a trip to the Final Four on the line. The Royals easily took down Bates in their Sweet 16 matchup last night; building a 40-18 lead by the halftime break and basically had things in cruise control the rest of the way. There's a reason why many think that Scranton is the only team that can challenge NYU for the whole ball of wax and why they've been consistently ranked right behind NYU all season long. Even though the final NPI rankings had the Royals at the number four spot, they're obviously the real deal and there's a reason that they're a pristine 30-0 after last night's win against Bates. I'm not going to go out on a limb and say that they're the DIII Women's Basketball version of the 1985 Chicago Bears (that MIGHT be reserved for NYU) but they're pretty damn close to it. They dominated the Landmark Conference this year and the only really "close" game they had was when they beat Elizabethtown back in early January 59-50. Hell, this Scranton team took down the Pitt Panthers in an exhibition game at Pittsburgh back in mid-November for Christ's sake. When you look at the roster, you'll see a pretty nice blend of veteran leadership and youth but you have to peel back the onion and that's where you'll see why they're so danged good. They've got FOUR players who consistently score in double figures and they're led by senior guard Kaci Kranson who leads the way at 18.5 ppg and at 5'11", she's simply a matchup nightmare. Then you've got equally-lanky junior forward Elizabeth Bennett (also at 5'11") who averages 12.3 ppg. It doesn't fall off much from there either as fellow junior combo guard/forward Katie Gorski (6'0") averages 11.5 ppg along with fellow junior guard Meghan Lamanna who scores at a 10.3 ppg clip. Another player to keep your eye on is junior guard Kaeli Romanowski along with freshman guard Sophia Talutto. I suppose it should come as no surprise that the Royals led the Landmark Conference in total team offense, total team defense and margin of victory (38.9 to be exact in that department). They're tops in team FG percentage, team three-point FG percentage, team offensive rebounds, turnover margin and assist/turnover ratio. And they were second in team free throw percentage as well so there just simply aren't many weak spots - if any - when it comes to this group. I'm just going to be honest here: If you thought Concordia's margin for error against Johns Hopkins yesterday was small (it was), it's that much smaller today. In order to have any chance at winning tonight, the Cobbers are simply going to have to play the game of their life and it would be an upset of epic proportions if Concordia somehow - God willing - finds a way to pull this off. I will say this: This Cobber team has come this far and they haven't come this far just to lay down to a team that's superior on paper. I know this team will fight until the very end and they'll leave it all out there on the floor. That's all you can do.
Will be writing up a recap of this one later on tonight. Until then - ROLL COBBS!!!!!
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