CHARLOTTE, NC - Playing its fifth game in 10 days and without leading scorer junior Crista Ricketts (Douglasville, PA/Daniel Boone), the La Salle Women's Basketball team suffered a 77-57 loss to the hands of Charlotte, Sunday afternoon in Atlantic 10 action at Halton Arena.

 

The 49ers (14-5, 7-1 A-10) are making the most of their first season in the conference. After splitting its first two A-10 games (the loss was at Temple), Charlotte has reeled off six straight conference wins, which has vaulted them into a tie for the top spot with George Washington. Those teams do not play until the regular season finale.

 

La Salle (10-10, 6-3 A-10), which was off to its best start in conference play since the 1996-97 season, when the Explorers were 6-1, have fallen in their last two games. The loss also marked the Explorers first on the road this season in A-10 play.

 

The Explorers led early at 6-5 before the 49ers scored seven straight points. They took a 7-6 lead at the 16:35 mark of the first half after Pam Brown tipped in a missed jumper by Whitney Hoey and never trailed again.

 

After Charlotte opened an eight-point lead (16-8), sophomore Carlene Hightower (Philadelphia, PA/Archbishop Prendergast) scored four points in a La Salle 6-0 spurt that cut its deficit to just a basket.

 

The 49ers outscored the Explorers 10-1 to push its lead to double figures and would never allow the Explorers closer than seven the rest of the way.

 

Hightower scored a game- and career-high 29 points, and at one point in the contest had 19 of the Explorers 36 points. She was only stopped when she was whistled for her fourth foul and went to the bench for five minutes. She went 13-of-18 from the field and hit 3-of-4 from the foul line, and she also grabbed a game-high eight rebounds.

 

The 49ers used a balance attack as all of their players who saw action scored. Four players reached double figures led by Sakellie Daniels, who scored 16 points, while Brown scored 12, Courtney Williams had 11 and Sabrina Gregory chipped in 10.