Box Score

WILLIAMSBURG, Va. - Leeza Burdgess led the Explorers with a career-high 20 points, Siobhan Beslow set a new career mark with 11 points and Micahya Owens added 19 as the La Salle women's basketball squad defeated William & Mary 73-59 at Kaplan Arena on Thursday night.

Burdgess broke her career mark of 16, set on Dec. 11, 2010 at Valparaiso when she played at Pittsburgh. She went 10-for-14 from the field and added seven rebounds. Beslow hit double figures for the first time in her career thanks to 7-for-8 shooting at the free throw line, breaking her old record of nine points set on two separate occasions.

Jasmine Alston, earning her first collegiate start in place of an injured Khristin Lee, tied her season and career mark with nine points along with six rebounds and two blocked shots. Alston went 4-for-5 from the field.

The Explorers (3-4) were unstoppable, shooting a blistering 57.1 percent from the field including 4-for-7 from long range. They went 51.7 percent in the first half before turning up the heat even more with a 65.0 percent second-half clip.

William & Mary's (1-6) Jazmen Boone led all scorers with 24 points, Kyla Kerstetter added 10 and Kaitlyn Mathieu chipped in 10 along with a team-high eight rebounds.

The Explorers won the opening tip and Burdgess converted the first of her seven made first-half shots just 17 seconds in to put the Blue & Gold on top. Minus two early tie scores (2-2 and 4-4), the Explorers never trailed. Owens drained a fastbreak layup at 17:25 to put the Explorers up for good. The Tribe stayed close, cutting the Explorer lead down to just two at 24-22 with 4:57 on the clock and again at 26-24 a few seconds later, but the Explorers closed the half with an 11-2 run to take a 37-26 halftime lead.

Owens drained two quick threes in the second half and the Explorers' hot shooting propelled them to as many as an 18-point lead. Alicia Cropper capped a 10-3 spurt out of the break with a jumper to give the Explorers a 47-29 lead and force a Tribe timeout at 16:58.

The Explorers maintained their double-digit lead save for four straight Boone points that cut the lead to nine at 66-57 with 2:16 remaining. Cropper snagged a steal and made the fastbreak layup at 1:38 to regain the double-digit lead that the Explorers would not relinquish down the stretch. Beslow drained four free throws in the final minute to give her the new career high.

The Explorers outrebounded the Tribe 39-29; however, the Tribe won the turnover battle 16-9. Tonight marked just the second time this season that the Blue & Gold failed to force more turnovers than they committed.

La Salle now has 10 days off for finals, and returns to action on Sunday, Dec. 15, when Villanova pays a visit to Tom Gola Arena at 1 p.m. for a Big 5 contest.