PHILADELPHIA, Pa. – The La Salle women's basketball team put up a great defensive effort in the first quarter holding Massachusetts scoreless through the first five minutes, but the momentum slowed with the Minutewomen putting up a huge fourth-quarter effort to take the 66-42 victory.
 
La Salle falls to 14-10 on the season and 5-4 in Atlantic 10 play while Massachusetts improves to 19-4 overall and 9-1 in conference play.
 
HOW IT HAPPENED:

• After a scoreless four minutes for both teams to start a huge Mia Jacobs blocked ball led to the Claire Jacobs steal and fastbreak layup for the first points of the game. Mia Jacobs put up two more for La Salle from the line before allowing a bucket from the Minutewomen to cut the lead to two, 4-2, heading into the media timeout. UMass mounted a 7-0 run out of the break to pull ahead by five, 9-4, until an and one bucket from Molly Masciantonio with 54 seconds to go cut the deficit to two, 9-7.
• The Explorers offense slowed with the Minutewomen taking a 4-0 run into the media to put La Salle behind by six, 13-7. Umass converted another two-pointer answered back by the bucket and one for Mia Jacobs to cut the Explorers deficit to five, 15-10, with 6:52 left. Back-to-back threes from the Minutewomen created an 11-point deficit, 21-10, and sparked an Explorers timeout at the 5:40 mark. La Salle's offense started to pick up with back-to-back threes from Masciantonio and Kayla Spruill followed up with a 5-0 run out of the half to cut the deficit to 11, 32-21
• La Salle cut the deficit back down to single digits five times in the third quarter trailing by as little as seven thanks to a Masciantonio three ball at the 2:13 mark. The Minutewomen held the 5-0 edge through the final minutes to take a 12-point lead into the last 10 minutes, 45-33.
• The fourth quarter put La Salle out of reach with Massachusetts putting up 21 points in the frame while holding the Explorers to just nine points and 21% shooting from the field for the ultimate 66-42 loss.

INSIDE THE BOX SCORE:

• Mia Jacobs and Molly Masciantonio led the scoring efforts for the Explorers with nine points apiece.
• Jacobs went 2-of-8 from the field and 5-of-6 from the foul line while adding three boards and four steals.
• Masciantonio saw the most success from the three-point range today shooting 2-of-3. The point guard dished out two assists while adding one steals and just one turnover.
• Claire Jacobs led the battle at the boards for La Salle in the game pulling down a team-high five.
• The Explorers won the turnover battle 18-23.

GAME NOTES:

• La Salle falls to 14-22 in the all-time series against Massachusetts and is now 8-9 in the series when playing the Minutewomen at home. It has now been six years since the Explorers last earned a victory over Massachusetts on its home court with the last win coming on Jan. 25, 2017.
• The 42 points marks the Explorers second-lowest scoring game of the year and second-straight contest with under 50 points.
• La Salle's 11% shooting effort from beyond the arc marks the lowest this season.
• The game marks the first contest this season in which no Explorer has recorded double-digits in the game. La Salle had previously recorded six-straight games with three or more players in double figures.
• Spruill sunk her first 3-pointer in two games and is now just two away from tying the program's all-time 3-point record of 208.
• Masciantonio has now recorded 12 games this season with one or zero turnovers.

UP NEXT:

• La Salle makes a familiar trip back down to Richmond next weekend to face the Spiders on Wednesday, Feb. 8 at 6 p.m.