Jan. 22, 2006

Box Score

PHILADELPHIA - Despite sophomore forward Erica Pollock tying her career-best of 18 points, the Saint Joseph's women's basketball team couldn't overcome an eight-minute scoreless drought as the Hawks fell at La Salle 65-50 Sunday at Tom Gola Arena.

Saint Joseph's opened the game quickly, taking a 16-6 lead at 9:29 on a jump shot by senior Faith Schutte.

From there, La Salle would go on to outscore the Hawks 16-4 to end the half with a 22-20 edge as senior guard Shaun McLaughlin gave the Explorers the lead with a pair of free throws with nine seconds remaining.

In the second half, La Salle continued to extend its lead, scoring the first four points to take a 26-20 lead on a free throw by Christa Ricketts at 17:21.

Trailing 29-21, Saint Joseph's mounted a comeback to take its first lead of the second stanza as the Hawks scored nine straight points. A three-pointer by sophomore guard Timisha Gomez put Saint Joseph's up 30-29 on a three pointer at 10:04.

With the scored tied at 32 apiece, La Salle went on an 18-4 run to open up a 50-36 gap that would get no closer than 10 over the final five minutes.

For the game, the Hawks finished 20-of-62 from the field (32.3 percent) and 3-of-18 from behind the arc (53.8 percent). At the other end, La Salle went 16-of-41 (39 percent) and 7-of-15 from three-point range (46.7 percent). The Explorers also finished 26-of-32 from the line (81.3 percent), while the Hawks shot just 7-of-13 (53.8 percent).

Individually, Pollock led all scorers and tied her career-high with 18 points, while Gomez added seven.

For La Salle, Ricketts led the way with 16 points, while McLaughlin added 14 points.

With the loss, Saint Joseph's falls to 12-6 overall and 4-3 in Atlantic 10 play. La Salled improved to 9-8 with the win and 6-1 in conference play.

Saint Joseph's returns to action Friday at 7 p.m. as the Hawks host Temple.