2/27/25
 
SCRANTON, Pa. – Lackawanna women's basketball couldn't find its shooting touch, and the Harcum College Bears made sure that touch stayed out of sight.
 
Harcum led horn-to-horn, wiping out Lackawanna College, 85-45, in the NJCAA Region XIX DII women's basketball semifinal on Thursday afternoon in the historic Lackawanna College Student Union gymnasium.
 
The win sends the #14 Bears (24-5) to the championship game, where they will face the #6 Union College Owls (24-2) for the Region XIX DII crown. That game is set for a 1:00pm ET tip-off on Saturday, March 1^st, inside the historic Lackawanna College Student Union gymnasium. Lackawanna (17-8) ends its season with the loss.
 
Harcum rocketed out to a 17-4 lead through the first five minutes of the game, and Lackawanna, try as it might, couldn't get any closer than nine in the quarter, before the Bears made three free throws to take a 22-10 lead after one quarter.
 
The lead grew to 43-20 at one point, before the Falcons closed the second on a 7-2 run to make it 45-27 at the break. Ania Crocker (Freeport, NY), who finished with 12 points and five assists, hit a three-pointer just before the end of the half to try to give the Falcons some sort of momentum, and there just might have been some juice for the Birds after the break.
 
Points were hard to come by to start the third, and Harcum led 48-29 with under seven to go. Saraiah Franklin (Philadelphia, PA) scored off a nifty feed from Crocker, then a lay-up for Harcum was answered by a three-point play for Desiree White (Carlisle, PA) with 5:50 to play in the third. A Crocker runner cut things to 50-36 with 5:10 to play, and the game was teetering on potentially becoming competitive. A Salote Franklin (Philadelphia, PA) steal gave the Falcons possession, but Lackawanna missed the shot, and the Falcons suffered an ill-timed four-minute scoring drought, which Harcum turned into a 58-36 lead before Franklin scored with 41 seconds to go in the quarter. Harcum eventually took a 59-38 lead into the fourth, then scored the first eleven points of the final frame to pull away for the comfortable win.
 
Lackawanna shot 29.2% from the floor and was just 2-for-17 from the three-point arc. The Falcons committed 23 turnovers, getting outscored 18-to-4 in points off turnovers. Salote Frankling finished with 13 points and nine rebounds, while Crocker had 12 points and five assists. Saraiah Franklin had six points and two boards, while White scored five off the bench.
 
Harcum shot 46.6% for the game, made eight three-pointers, and outrebounded the Falcons 40-29. Two players scored in double-figures, with Sofia Vitucci leading the way at 18 points with four made three-pointers. Amber Bullard had 17 points and six rebounds, while Kelsey Bess scored eight points, had six assists, and posted five boards.
 
Lackawanna ends the 2024-2025 season with 17 wins, its most victories since the 2019-2020 season. The Falcons will say goodbye to a sophomore class that featured two 600+ points scorers in White and Jayla South (Long Pond, PA), as well as a player in Salote Franklin who scored over 400 points and grabbed over 300 rebounds in one season of play.