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Despite playing their third game in four days, the Roadrunners finished their season with an exclamation point on the floor at the Verizon Center in Washington, D.C., winning their first City Title since 2001.

Senior forward Tyaunna Marshall led all scorers with 23 points and pulled down a game-high seven rebounds for Seton (24-8), and Alyssa Albanese added 10 points and three steals.

Seton ended Woodson's two-year reign as city champs. After winning the Washington Catholic Athletic Conference title on March 8, the Roadrunners lost twice at the Bishop Walsh Invitational over the weekend in Cumberland, Md., and returned home Saturday evening knowing they had to gain a second breath.

"After WCACs our minds were kind of lost and tired," said Marshall, whose team lost to WCAC rival St. John's (D.C.) on Saturday afternoon in Cumberland. "This [City Title] is bigger than anything else right now."

Marshall, a Georgia Tech recruit, and her teammates stymied Woodson (23-10) with a variety of zone defenses, not allowing a field goal over the final 12 minutes of the game. Her steal near midcourt and ensuing layup, put Seton ahead, 38-28, late in the third quarter.

Albanese opened the fourth quarter with a steal and layup and hit a jumper, extending the lead to 42-30. The Roadrunners also got huge contributions from Julia Weatherly, Melanie Royster, Melanie Dunning, Jazmine Missouri and Alexis Martin.

"We knew that they like drive so as long as we were intense defensively, we could stop them," said Albanese, a junior point guard. "We needed everybody."

Early on, it was a scoring battle between two of the area's premier players in Marshall and Woodson's Ronika Ransford, a University of Georgia recruit. Ransford scored all 13 of her team's points in the first quarter. Marshall had 12 points in the first half.

Midway through the third quarter, Ransford (team-high 15 points and five rebounds) sustained a concussion after landing hard on the court when she went for a rebound. The Warriors shot just 1 for 18 in the second half and committed eight turnovers.

"They were deflated and we started going hard," said Marshall, whose team outscored Woodson, 27-6, in the second half. "It doesn't matter who they have, we're going to play our game."

Though the Roadrunners lose Marshall to graduation, they'll have four starters among their eight returning letter winners next year. Sunday's victory was the culmination of a climb back to prominence for the Bladensburg school.

"I told the kids you never know, this maybe your only opportunity at a championship," said Perazic. "We've created a team like the Seton community: hard working, not pretentious or cocky, just working hard together as a team."