Feb. 1, 2011

Box Score

CINCINNATI - The women’s basketball team fell 102-51 to No. 7 Xavier in Atlantic 10 play on Tuesday evening at the Cintas Center.

Senior Ashley Gale registered a team-high 17 points and five assists, while sophomore Ebonee Jones added 16 points and six rebounds.  Gale is now 21 points away from career point number 1,000.

For the Musketeers, Ta’ Shia Phillips notched a double-double of 21 points and 10 rebounds.  Four other Xavier players reached double figures in scoring.

The Explorers limited Amber Harris, who entered the game second in the A-10 in points per game with 19.6, to four points in 20 minutes of play.

Gale gave the Explorers the first points of the game after stealing the ball from Harris on Xavier’s first possession and taking it to the hoop.

Gale would give La Salle another lead at 11-10 with just under five minutes gone after sinking a three-point basket.

From there, the Musketeers’ Tyeasha Moss and Katie Rutan got hot from distance. Rutan hit five treys and Moss added two in the next 10 minutes to help push Xavier’s lead to 47-19 with 5:03 remaining in the first half.

Xavier also had success pounding the ball inside to the 6-6 Phillips. The Musketeers scored 42 points in the paint.

“They were just better than us at every position,” head coach Jeff Williams said. “We lost our composure and just could never get it back.”

The Explorers went into the break down by 62-21, posting their lowest first half tally since putting up the same number against Penn on January 19.

Xavier closed out the second half and became the first team to drop 100 or more points on the Explorers since Manhattan defeated La Salle 102-72 on January 17, 1984.  La Salle was outrebounded 46-26.

La Salle will next face Fordham on Sunday in a noontime game that will be televised on CBS College Sports.