Women's Basketball: Explorers' stuggles continue

By Mike McDonald
Collegian Staff
March 1, 2006

The Explorer women’s basketball team concluded its regular season on Sunday, Feb. 26 in Amherst, Mass. in a manner they certainly had not planned. After dropping its final two games to Fordham and Massachusetts, it will carry a five-game losing streak into the Atlantic 10 Tournament.

Senior Davineia Payne dodges a Fordham defender. - Sara Allen

On Friday, Feb. 24, the Explorers hosted the Fordham Rams at the Tom Gola Arena. Fordham entered the game with a 3-11 A-10 record and had an upset in mind. The Rams played a tough first half and managed to stay right with the Explorers. The halftime score was La Salle 34, Fordham 31.

“We should have been up by double figures at the half,” head coach Tom Lochner said. “We just didn’t take advantage.”

Fordham turned the ball over 11 times in the first half, but forward Jada Jefferson single-handedly kept the Rams in the game. Jefferson scored 15 points in the first half, shooting seven for 10 from the field.

The second half had a much different tone. Hot Fordham shooting and poor La Salle defense put the Rams way out in front.

“We needed to play better team defense through the whole game,” Lochner said. “[Fordham was] very confident shooting the ball because of the way we were playing defense. You can’t let a team shoot 75 percent.”

The Rams shot 15 for 20 from the floor in the second half. The team’s high level of play was fueled by guard Lisa Carrol, who played all 20 minutes of the second half and scored 21 points in the period, shooting six of seven, as well as making all seven attempts from the free throw line. Carrol was the backbone of Fordham’s huge 19-0 run, which seemingly took over the game.

Fordham led by a score of 68-51 with 3:46 remaining when things got interesting. The Explorers suddenly exploded, going on a 14-0 run to close the gap to 68-65. The run included six points from senior Shaune McLaughlin and five from junior Crista Ricketts. In the end, though, the comeback ran out of steam and Fordham won, 76-68.

“The comeback was a good testament to our abilities,” Lochner said. “But you just can’t dig a hole like that.”

Friday night was also senior night for the women’s team, as seniors Davineia Payne, Lamera Ferguson and McLaughlin were honored prior to tip-off.

“They’re very special,” Lochner said. “They have a lot of heart and can really compete.”

The weekend still had another game to be played, as the Explorers headed up I-95 for a showdown with Massachusetts that Lochner described as “absolutely crucial to our whole season. We [didn’t] want to finish [the regular season] with losses.”

In this contest, the Explorers got of to a disastrous start. UMass scored the first nine points of the game, and La Salle began the game by shooting two for 20 from the floor. The halftime score had UMass out in front, 32-20.

The Explorers were able to step it up somewhat in the second half, but Massachusetts was playing from out in front all day. A late surge by La Salle cut the lead to six, but it never got any closer than that. UMass won it, 63-55.

There were some nice individual performances on Sunday for the Explorers. Payne scored 20 points, chalking up her fifth game of 20 or more points this season, while junior Crista Ricketts contirubted 11 points and seven boards. Sophomore Alyse Hoover also had a strong game, scoring a career-high 10 points coming off the bench for the Explorers.

This five-game losing streak has not put the team where it wanted to find itself at this point in the season. On Jan. 22, with a win over Saint Joseph’s, the Explorers improved to 6-1 in the Atlantic 10, good for the top spot in the conference standings.

However, the team has gone 1-8 in Atlantic 10 play since that point. The slide has dropped La Salle dramatically in the standings. At the close of the regular season, the Explorers are 11-16 overall and 7-9 in the A-10. This puts them at the lower end of the middle of the pack. They enter the Atlantic 10 tournament as the eighth seed in a field of 12.

The Atlantic 10 Tournament will be played at Alumni Memorial Fieldhouse on the campus of Saint Joseph’s University from March 3-6. La Salle will be matched up against Richmond and will play on Friday, March 3 at noon. This is a rematch of the Jan. 6 thriller between La Salle and Richmond, a contest won by the Explorers on a Carlene Hightower bucket with just 3.7 seconds left.

The weekend will certainly be action-packed, and if the Explorers get through Richmond, the team would run up against number one seed, George Washington. The Explorers lost to the Colonials on Feb. 17 and would certainly love to get another shot at them.

However, before getting to that point, La Salle will have to battle against the Richmond Spiders. The Explorers will need to forget about this losing streak, because beginning Friday, it truly will be the second season. The slate is wiped clean, and any team can go out there and make something happen. After all, it is March.

mcdonald@lasalle.edu