Kingston, RI - Head Coach Tom Lochner, in his first season, and the La Salle University women's basketball team recorded its first conference victory defeating the University of Rhode Island 74-67 today, Sunday, January 9, 2005. La Salle improves to 7-7 on the season and 1-2 in the conference.
The Explorers went up 7-0 before the Rhody tallied a bucket, but the Rams battled back and with La Salle leading 17-10 Rhode Island's Peta Kneen rattled off three straight three pointers and put Rhode Island up 23-20. The Rams' run was hushed by La Salle junior Shaune McLaughlin (Somers Point, NJ/Mainland Regional) when she hit her second of two three pointers in the game.
La Salle did not score in the final 2:23 of the first half and a three pointer by the Rams with less than two seconds remaining put Rhode Island up 37-34 at the half. La Salle senior Jill Marano (Crofton, MD/Arundel) led the team at the half with 11 points.
The Explorers came out of the locker room and scored the first five points of the second period sparked by a three pointer by senior Monica Garrido-Sanz (Majadahonda, Spaine/C.B. Majadahonda). La Salle then went on a 20-2 run from the 15:58 mark until just 7:20 remaining in the game to take a 64-26 lead.
The Rams then went on a run of their own as La Salle did not score from the 8:17 mark until Garrido-Sanz connected on a lay-up with 2:07 remaining in the game to put her team up 66-56.
Rhode Island did not go away and brought the game to within six points with 28 seconds left, but free throws kept the Explorers in the game and La Salle came away with a 74-67 victory, their first A-10 victory of the season.
Marano led the Explorers with 18 points on 5-8 from the field and 4-6 from the charity stripe, her first missed free throws of the season. Senior Meghan Wilkinson (Downingtown, PA/Downingtown) led the team once again in assists as she dished out seven, she also tallied 17 points and pulled down five rebounds. Junior Davineia Payne (Bear, DE/Caravel Academy) was the only other Explorer to score in double figures as she added ten points in the win.
Garrido-Sanz led all players in rebounds with 11. She also recorded seven points a four assists. La Salle sophomore Crista Ricketts (Douglasville, PA/Daniel Boone) played just 11 minutes due to foul trouble, and managed to score eight points in that time. Juniors Lamera Ferguson (Syracuse, NY/Nottingham) and McLaughlin both scored six points a piece. McLaughlin was 2-3 from three-point land and dished out three assists.
La Salle stays on the road traveling to Duquesne for a 7:00 p.m. contest this Thursday, January 13th.
