Feb. 27, 2010
Box Score
PHILADELPHIA - La Salle Women's Basketball played its final home game at Tom Gola Arena Saturday and honored six seniors before the contest. The visiting Dayton Flyers then took home the victory, 62-46, in the final Atlantic 10 regular season game for both teams.
Two of those seniors, Morgan Robertson and Antonia Gale tied for the team-high with 11 points, while adding a pair of rebounds and an assist to their totals. Junior Ashley Gale chipped in nine points, a team-high five rebounds and four assists, and a team-high tying three steals.
The Flyers scored the first seven points out of the gate as Kristin Daugherty tallied five of her 12 points in the game's first five minutes.
Robertson put the Explorers on the board with a jumper which was followed by a driving lay-up by Gale.
However, Dayton rattled off eight of the contest's next 11 points over a six-minute span to build an eight-point lead (15-7), as a Jamie Walsh three pointer was all the Explorers could manage. Walsh ended with six points on two made three-point baskets.
La Salle would pull to within one at 15-14 with 6:43 left before the break, scoring seven straight points. The run was started by a Robertson lay-up, continued by a Danielle Callahan driving lay-up, and capped by an Ashley Gale three pointer, her first of two on the day.
Dayton (23-6, 11-3 A-10), who earned the second seed in the upcoming A-10 Championship, used a 19-4 run spanning the halves and including 10 straight points, to push its lead into double figures.
Justine Raterman had nine of her game-high 21 in that time, and she also finished with game-highs of seven rebounds and four steals. Six of her seven boards were on the offensive end, where the Flyers grabbed a total of 16 and turned them into 21 second-chance points, while the Explorers had just two.
Antonia Gale and Robertson scored back-to-back baskets to cut the deficit to 12, but only to see it get back to 16 two minutes later. La Salle would cut the Flyer lead to 12 three more times, and once had it to 11, after a Gale jumper with 3:12 remaining.
Dayton, though, would keep its lead in double figures thanks in part to a 20-of-21 shooting afternoon from the charity stripe. In fact, they made 20 in a row before Daugherty missed the last Flyer attempt of the game. Meanwhile, La Salle shot just 5-of-8 from the free throw line.
Tara Lapetina scored three points and added four rebounds for the Explorers, while Nadia Duncan tied for team-high with three steals and had two points and boards.
La Salle (7-22, 2-12 A-10) honored its six seniors, which included Gale, Lapetina, Danielle Mickiewicz, Robertson, Shelly Szmyt, and Walsh, in their final appearance at Tom Gola Arena.
Special Note: La Salle is now in a holding pattern to see what awaits its future. With their loss and a St. Bonaventure win over Rhode Island, the Rams and Explorers now hold identical 2-12 league marks.
That coupled with a possible Fordham loss to #5/5 Xavier on Sunday would result in the three teams all ending 2-12 for the season and all tied for the 12th and final spot for the A-10 tournament.
As the tie-breaker procedures work, La Salle and Fordham hold a 2-1 mark versus the teams involved in the tie-breaker, and Rhode Island is 0-2 and would be eliminated first.
Then it comes down to La Salle and Fordham, head-to-head, which is 1-1, and then record versus the league standings, which are all 0-1 until Rhode Island is reached, which they are both 1-0. So, it will come down to a coin flip, which will be held Sunday evening after all games have been completed.
