Posted by: Meaghann Schulte
PHILADELPHIA, PA - The La Salle University women's basketball team played its fourth Big East opponent of the season as they defeated Georgetown 79-67 in the first game of the La Salle Classic. The Explorers improve to 6-4 on the season, while the Hoyas fall to 4-5 with the loss.
The Explorers trailed just once in the entire game when Georgetown took a 4-2 lead at the 19:01 mark in the first half. La Salle led for the rest of the game taking leads as big as 17 in the first half and 25 in the second half.
La Salle was led by sophomore Crista Ricketts (Douglasville, PA/Danile Boone) with 21 points and nine rebounds. She was 10-14 from the field leading her team to an impressive 52% field goal percentage on the game. Senior Jill Marano (Crofton, MD/Arundel) was 5-9 from behind the arc and finished the game with 17 points. She is just nine points shy of scoring 1,000. She will become the 19th member of the La Salle women's basketball 1,000 point club.
La Salle junior Davineia Payne (Bear, DE/Caravel Academy) and senior Monica Garrido-Sanz (Majadahonda, Spain/C.B. Majadahonda) both netted nine points a piece. Garrido-Sanz recorded all nine of her points in the first half, she also pulled down seven rebounds. Senior Meghan Wilkinson (Downingtown, PA/Downingtown) and junior Shaune McLaughlin (Somers Point, NJ/Mainland Regional) tallied eight points a piece. McLaughlin was 3-4 from the field and perfect from three point land. McLaughlin added four assists to her total, she leads the team with 31. Wilkinson and Garrido-Sanz also dished out four assists a piece.
The Hoyas went on a 21-7 run in the middle of the second half and brought the score to within 11 at the 8:19 mark, but McLaughlin silenced their run draining a three and putting her squad back up 14. Georgetown had two players finish with double doubles as Bethany LaSueur tallied 11 points, including 9 from the charity stripe, and pulled down 10 boards. Kieraah Marlow led the Hoays with 19 points and 11 boards.
Georgetown will face Kent State in the second game of the La Salle Classic tomorrow, Wednesday, December 29th, 2004 at 7:00 p.m. La Salle will then host Kent State in the third and final game of the Classic on Thursday, December 30th also at 7:00 p.m.
