RICHMOND, Va. – The La Salle women's basketball team went into the half knotted at 21-21 with VCU, but two strong runs for the Rams in the second half put the Explorers in a chase they couldn't overcome dropping the contest 53-38 on Wednesday morning.
 
La Salle now falls to 14-9 on the season and 5-3 in Atlantic 10 play while VCU improves to 7-14 overall and 4-5 in conference play.
 
HOW IT HAPPENED:

• Back-to-back buckets from Claire Jacobs to start the game put the Explorers up by four early until the Rams put up seven unanswered to pull ahead by three, 7-4. Trailing by two, Amy Jacobs made a second-chance layup to tie the score, 8-8, but VCU pulled ahead again before the media, 10-8. The Rams held a 3-2 advantage coming out of the media with neither team scoring again through the final four minutes of the quarter giving VCU a 13-10 lead heading in to the second quarter.
• Claire Jacobs broke a nearly five-minute scoring drought with a driving layup to bring the Explorers within one point, 13-12. La Salle held the 4-2 edge over the next four minutes into the media thanks for a 4-of-4 performance from the charity stripe to take a single-point lead, 16-15. The Explorers pulled ahead by three with 4:32 left to the play but it came down to the performance at the foul line in the final 22 seconds with VCU going 2-of-2 and La Salle 1-of-2 to tie the game, 21-21, at the half.
• Molly Masciantonio started the quarter off strong converting the first bucket from the long range to start an 8-3 run for the Explorers to put them ahead by five, 29-24. VCU responded quick with an 11-0 spurt to pull ahead by six, 35-29, and force a La Salle timeout with 4:40 left in the quarter. The Rams outscored the Explorers 5-2 through the rest of the quarter to take a nine-point lead, 40-31.
• La Salle cut the deficit down to four thanks to a long ball from Charity Shears at the 8:09 mark, but the Rams offense prevailed holding La Salle scoreless while pulling ahead by 15 through the rest of the frame for the 53-38 win.   

INSIDE THE BOX SCORE:

• Mia Jacobs was the leading scorer for the Explorers with a team-high 10 points from 3-of-7 shooting and 4-of-4 from the line.
• Jacobs joined Spruill as the leader under the boards each pulling down six rebounds in the game.
• La Salle held the advantage at the foul line shooting 90%-75%.
• The Explorers also won the turnover battle with a minus-two margin, 18-20, but struggled at the boards ending the game at -11, 33-45.
• This is the Explorers lowest scoring game of the season. La Salle is now 0-1 when scoring under 50 points and 1-6 when shooting below 35%.

GAME NOTES:

• The loss extends La Salle's streak in the all-time series to five. The Explorers fall to 3-8 in the all-time series and 1-5 when visiting the Rams in Richmond.
• Mia Jacobs has now recorded her seventh-straight games with at least 10 points marking her 11^th game of the season in double digits.
• Masciantonio put up yet another game with no turnovers marking her 11^th game this season with one or zero turnovers.

 
UP NEXT:

• La Salle returns home to Tom Gola Arena at TruMark Financial Center this Saturday, Feb. 4 at 2 p.m. to take on Massachusetts in its Play4Kay Paint it Pink game, presented by Sherwin Williams. Fans will have a chance to partake in a special paint by numbers honoring breast cancer awareness in the mezzanine pregame.