Nov. 6, 2009
Box Score
PHILADELPHIA - La Salle Women's Basketball erased an eight-point halftime deficit to take a late lead, however Holy Family's Meghan Gibson hit a jumper with four seconds left to give the Tigers a 73-72 exhibition victory over the Explorers, Friday night at Tom Gola Arena.
La Salle actually trailed by as many as 11 points with 12:30 left in the first half as the Tigers used a 15-2 run over a five-minute span to jump out to a 17-6 lead.
The Explorers responded with their own run to get as close as two as Jamie Walsh and Tara Lapetina each hit a three, and Ashley Gale scored on a three-point play. After Nadia Duncan converted one of her two free throws, they trailed 22-20 with 6:46 left before the break.
Holy Family increased their lead to double figures again in the second half when Catherine Carr, who scored a game-high 17 points, scored on back-to-back jumpers to push the Tiger advantage to 46-36 with 17:24 left in the game.
La Salle chipped away and would have the deficit to within one five times before finally tying the game at 59-59 on a Gale foul shot with 6:49 remaining.
Gibson, who chipped in 16 points, hit her fourth three-point basket of the evening to push the Tiger lead back to six just over a minute later.
The Explorers answered with an 8-2 run capped by a Gale three pointer to tie the game with 2:23 left and when Walsh hit one of two from the free throw line, La Salle held a one-point lead with 1:16 remaining.
After Nya Daley converted a pair of foul shots for Holy Family, Morgan Robertson scored on a short jumper, two of her team-high 14 points, to put La Salle up one, seconds before Gibson's winning bucket.
Eleven Explorers saw at least 11 minutes of action, and only two others, Walsh and Gale scored in double figures, each with 11. Antonia Gale added seven points, four boards, and three assists, Jenna Gilbert pulled down a team-high six rebounds to go with five points, Chelsea Conner scored six points with two blocks, Danielle Mickiewicz had four points, three rebounds, and two steals, and Duncan added five points with four boards.
La Salle's two freshmen saw time on the floor, as Ebonee Jones scored four points, grabbed five rebounds, and added three assists in 20 minutes, while Danielle Callahan played 13 minutes, with two points, two assists, and one board.
In all, the Explorers shot better than 50% from the floor (25-49), but hurt themselves on the foul line. A squad which finished 11th in the nation in Free-Throw Percentage last season at 76.4% missed 10 from the charity stripe (16-26, 61.5%) in the loss.
La Salle will open its regular-season slate next Friday at Tom Gola Arena with a 7 PM tip against Loyola (MD) as part of the Homecoming festivities.
