Box Score

PHILADELPHIA - The La Salle women's basketball team nearly erased a 16-point deficit, coming within one with 1:20 remaining, but ultimately fell to visiting Fairfield 55-52 at Tom Gola Arena on Thursday afternoon.

Brittany Wilson led the Explorers (3-9) with 15 points, Alexis Scott added 14 and Nadia Duncan chipped in 10. Fairfield's Katelyn Linney led all scorers wtih 19 points with five made treys. Ruvanna Campbell pulled down a game-best 12 boards to tie a season-high and record her fourth double-digit rebounding game of her young career.

The Stags (7-3) jumped out to an early 9-0 lead and never trailed the rest of the way. Alexis Scott got the Explorers on the board at the 12:59 mark but the visitors pushed their early lead to as many as 16 in the first stanza at 25-9. Fairfield took a 30-18 lead into the break.

The Explorers came out of the break with fight, clawing back to within four at 32-28 on a 10-2 run spanning the first 4:43 of the second half. They could not break the four-point barrier until a Scott jumper with 3:09 remaining put the score at 48-45 and followed up a minute later with two made free throws to pull within 48-47.

Fairfield's Desiree Pina answered with two free throws of her own to push the lead back to three with 1:32 left. Wilson made the Explorers' second push, countering with another two made free throws with 1:20 left to get within 50-49. Pina answered with a jumper and Taryn Johnson swished two free throws of her own to push the Stag lead back to five and ultimately put the game out of reach.

Michea Bryant tried keeping the Explorers alive with a beautiful banked trey with two seconds left, but with just one-tenth of a second left on the ensuing inbounds pass and foul, the Blue & Gold did not have the time to get off another shot.

Turnovers were the bright spot in the Explorer statistics, as they committed a season-low four turnovers. They also forced the Stags into 13 miscues.

The Explorers return to action after the Christmas holiday when they head to Dartmouth for the Blue Sky Classic on Dec. 29-30. They play host Dartmouth at 7 p.m. on Thursday (12/29) and Vermont at 5 p.m. on Friday (12/30).