PHILADELPHIA - Morgan Robertson notched her second double-double of the season with game-highs in points and rebounds for La Salle Women's Basketball, but visiting Saint Joseph's used a strong second half to get the Philadelphia Big 5 victory, 45-39, Wednesday night at Tom Gola Arena.
Robertson connected on a career-high 9-of-10 free throws and hit five shots from the floor for 19 points, two shy of her season-high, and also pulled down a season-high 11 boards.
She started the game's scoring 20 seconds in with a short jumper than added 1-of-2 from the foul line to put La Salle up 3-0 and then Jamie Walsh connected on a three at the 14:30 mark of the first to make it 6-2. Walsh ended the evening with eight points, three boards, two assists, and two steals.
Saint Joseph's (10-10, 3-2 A-10, 2-2 Big 5) responded with six straight points and an 8-2 overall run, with Brittany Ford scoring six, to take a 10-8 lead with 6:19 left before the break.
The Explorers responded with seven straight points and closed out the first half on an 11-1 run. Walsh scored five to ignite the run and Robertson tallied the last six to put her team up 19-11 at the intermission.
The Hawks scored the first nine points out of the locker room to reclaim the lead and used an overall 24-6 run to build a 10-point lead at 35-25 with 8:28 left in the game.
Ford, who led the Hawks with 15 points, seven boards, two blocks and two steals, had six in the span. Three Hawks - Mariame Djouara (6), Amy Gillespie (5), and Dominique Bryant (5) - scored their only points in the contest during this run.
La Salle (5-16, 0-6 A-10, 1-2 Big 5) slowly chipped away at its deficit thanks in part to a perfect 10-for-10 from the foul line in the second half. Antonia Gale hit two and also scored on a driving lay-up for four of her eight points, she also had a game-high three steals.
Robertson hit four, and her two makes with 3:33 left in the game made it a six-point game, 39-33.
Ashley Prim, who to this point had just two points, but finished with eight, seven rebounds and five assists, responded with a driving lay-up to put her team back up eight.
The Explorers used six straight points, Gale two free throws and two Robertson baskets, to pull to within a pair (41-39) with 40 ticks left in the game.
La Salle shot 81.3% from the free throw line and Saint Joseph's, to this point, made just 3-of-8 and Prim was 0-for-4. However, the freshman calmly sank her final four from the foul line to seal the victory for the Hawks.
Saint Joseph's shot 52.0% from the floor in the second half and used seven offensive rebounds to score eight second-chance points, opposed to 18.5% and two second-chance points in the first half.
The Explorers shot just 22.7% from the floor in the second half, while the teams, who combined average 10-plus made threes per game, hit just 4-of-26 in the contest.
La Salle will be back on the court on Saturday, when they travel to the Bronx to take on Fordham at 1 PM.
