PHILADELPHIA, PA - The La Salle University Women's Basketball team won a record sixth straight home game at Tom Gola Arena, but the visiting Rhode Island Rams did not make it easy as the Explorers had to battle back from a five-point second half deficit to register the 61-57 victory in Atlantic 10 Conference action Sunday afternoon.

 

The Explorers were led by the combination of senior Crista Ricketts (Douglasville, PA/Daniel Boone) and junior Carlene Hightower (Philadelphia, PA/Archbishop Prendergast).

 

Ricketts scored 17 points and had 10 rebounds for her seventh double-double of the season, 20th of her career. She also passed former Explorer Jill Crandley (1982-86) for sixth place on the school's all-time scoring list and now has 1,452 in her career. Next up is Tracey Sneed (1985-89) who ended her career at La Salle with 1,486 points.

 

Hightower scored 26 points, tying her season-high, and it was her fifth straight game of at least 20 points - the first player since Linda Hester to score at least 20 or more in five straight games, doing it from Dec 27, 1985 through Jan. 4, 1986. She also added seven rebounds, five assists, three steals and two blocks to her totals.

 

Hightower opened the game with an old-fashioned three-point play then hit one from behind the arc. After senior Jenna Graber (Clarkesburg, NJ/Peddie School) hit her first three of the game La Salle was up 10-2 just three minutes into the game. They pushed their lead to 11 at 21-10 after another Hightower basket with 11:36 left.

 

The lead was 10 after another Graber three with 6:18 left in the first half, but the Rams held the Explorers off the scoreboard for the next five minutes and used a 9-0 run to cut their deficit to just one. When Jessica Magley went to the foul line with 1:57 before the break, she had a chance to give Rhode Island its first lead, but missed both shots.

 

La Salle responded with another Graber three and closed the half on an 8-2 run, which included a half-court buzzer beater by freshman Jamie Walsh (Downingtown, PA/Downingtown East), and went into the locker room up 36-29.

 

Rhode Island (4-13, 2-1 A-10) battled back and took its first lead on a Magley basket and used a 10-0 run in a 2:30 span to take a five-point lead at 43-38 at the 16:24 mark of the second half on a Safi Mojidi lay-up.

 

It was Ricketts turn to take the game over; scoring all eight La Salle points in an 8-2 run that gave the Explorers back the lead. However, the teams traded the lead six times from the 14:32 mark to the 8:37 mark, which is when Mojidi hit a pair of free throws to give the Rams a 55-53 advantage.

 

La Salle (14-4, 2-1 A-10) would hold Rhode Island to just one basket at the 3:22 mark the rest of the way and closed out the game with an 8-2 run. Hightower sealed the win with a pair of foul shots with seven seconds remaining.

 

The Explorers' defense, which had allowed Fordham's Lisa Carrol to score 33 and Saint Joseph's Ayahna Cornish 24, held the Rams' scoring duo of Mojidi and Amanda McGrew - averaging 26.0 and 21.5 ppg in A-10 play, respectively - to just Mojidi's 14 points. McGrew, who had hit 11 threes in the previous two games, was 0-for-8 from the floor.

 

Also, with the 26 points, Hightower has now helped La Salle register a 20-point scoring in the last 10 games - which has not been done at the school since the 1990-91 season when the team had a run of 11 straight.

 

The six-game winning streak at Tom Gola Arena is for a single season and passes a five-game streak during the 2003-04 season. The overall record for straight wins is eight, which includes the five-gamer and extended to the first three wins of the 2004-05 season.

 

The win improved La Salle's record to 4-0 in games after a loss and they are now 3-0 in games decided by five points or less.