The University of Scranton women's basketball team pulled away in the fourth quarter to hand Misericordia University a 70-48 defeat, Monday night on Doc Mould Court.

Alyssa Bondi led the Cougars with 14 points while Meaghan McCaffrey, Melina Santacroce and Skylar Bianchi all had six rebounds to lead MU.

Bondi drained three consecutive three-pointers in the opening minutes to keep MU within a point, 10-9.

Morgan Haefele made a spinning lay up in the lane and added two free throws to pull the Cougars even, 13-13, with 2:35 to go in the first period.

After a Scranton three-pointer, McCaffery converted a lob pass from Gianna Delfino to cut Scranton's lead to 16-15.

Jordan Postiglione answered another Royals' three-pointer with a reverse layup, but Scranton scored the final five points of the quarter to take a 24-17 lead.

Both teams went cold in the second quarter with Bianchi registering MU's first points of the period with a put back with 3:20 to go get within 29-19.

Elizabeth Fasti scored a reverse lay-up on a baseline cut at the buzzer to get the Cougars within 33-24 at halftime.

Postiglione had a steal and a coast-to-coast lay-up and Bondi drained a turnaround three-pointer from the left wing to cut Scranton's lead to 40-34 with 6:03 left in the third quarter.

Scranton stretched the lead to 51-39 after three periods and pulled away in the fourth quarter.

Misericordia will open MAC Freedom play at King's, Wednesday, while Scranton will travel to Catholic for its Landmark opener, Saturday.