Dec. 30, 2008
Box Score
BETHLEHEM, PA - A day after erasing a nine-point lead at the break to pull out a win, La Salle Women's Basketball could not maintain its own 11-point halftime advantage and dropped a 53-49 decision to Lehigh in the Championship game of the Christmas City Classic at Stabler Arena.
Morgan Robertson scored a game-high 18 points with six boards and two steals, while Ashley Gale added 17 points, a team-high eight rebounds and three steals - as each were named to the All-Tournament team - but no other Explorer netted more than six as La Salle's winning streak was halted at four.
As they did in Monday's game, the Explorers came out scoring, with Robertson tallying La Salle's first eight points in the first five minutes of the game.
Margaret Elderton hit a driving layup, Tara Lapetina knocked down the team's first three of the game, and after Gale converted an and-one, La Salle led by 10 (16-6) nine minutes into the contest.
The Mountain Hawks recovered - scoring six unanswered in a two-minute stretch, all on fast-break lay-ups - with Erica Prosser finishing on two of them to pull Lehigh to within four.
Elderton would hit a 10-footer in the lane to stop the run, and then Gale took over the La Salle offense. She scored eight straight Explorer points to push the lead back to 10 by converting 5-of-6 from the foul line, and hitting a three with 48 seconds left in the half to put the Explorers up 26-16.
Lehigh's Emily Gatch scored on a layup with 33 ticks left, but as the Explorers have been doing much of this season - scoring the last points of the half - Jamie Walsh knocked down a three with five seconds left to put La Salle up 11 (29-18) heading into the locker room.
Lehigh (10-3) would use a 12-3 run to open the second half with Courtney Dentler scoring eight of the team's points and her three with 12:39 left in the game pulled the Mountain Hawks to within two at 32-30.
However, it seemed La Salle weathered the run and would take back control by scoring seven straight points and when Elderton hit another jumper in the lane, the Explorers led 41-32 with less than eight minutes remaining.
But the Mountain Hawks used a 13-0 run over a five-minute span to take its first lead of the game and when Dentler capped it with a three with 3:57 left, Lehigh was up 45-41.
Gale would get La Salle to within one with a basket and a free throw with three minutes remaining and with 19 seconds, her three-pointer pulled them to within two, but Prosser knocked down two free throws to provide the winning margin.
She was named the tournament's MVP - scoring 12 and adding eight assists, while Dentler scored a team-high 15 points and was also named to the All-Tournament team.
La Salle (8-6) is next in action with its last non-conference contest of the season when the Explorers take on Big 5-rival Penn at the Palestra on Monday, Jan. 5 at 7 PM. They open Atlantic 10 Conference play next Saturday, Jan. 10 at Saint Bonaventure.
