PHILADELPHIA – Saint Joseph's women's basketball fended off a second-half rally from La Salle to secure a hard-fought 69-60 Atlantic 10 victory Saturday afternoon inside Hagan Arena.
 
FIRST QUARTER

• Aleah Snead scored seven of the first 11 points for Saint Joseph's (12-4, 3-2 A-10), helping the Hawks build an 11-4 lead in the opening five minutes.
• St. Joe's extended the lead to as many as 10 points before La Salle (10-5, 3-2 A-10) used a 7-0 run in a 41-second span to cut the deficit to three.
• An Emily Knouse 3-pointer with 35 seconds remaining pushed the Hawks' advantage to 20-14 at the end of the first quarter.

 
SECOND QUARTER

• A pair of 3-pointers from Knouse and Gabby Casey helped Saint Joseph's maintain a multi-possession lead over the opening three minutes of the quarter.
• La Salle pulled even with a 6-0 run, tying the game at 26-26 with 5:21 remaining.
• Meja Jägerskog started and ended a 15-0 run over the final five minutes, sending the Hawks into halftime with a 41-26 lead. Kaylinn Bethea led the Hawks with five points during the stretch, highlighting the run with a steal off a La Salle inbounds play and racing the length of the court to recover the ball and find Jägerskog for a layup with five seconds remaining.

 
THIRD QUARTER

• La Salle opened the quarter with a 17-6 run, cutting the deficit to four points heading into the media timeout.
• After a driving layup from Casey pushed the lead to 49-43, La Salle finished with the final seven points of the frame as a buzzer-beating 3-pointer gave the Explorers their first lead of the game.

 
FOURTH QUARTER

• Saint Joseph's opened the fourth quarter with the first seven points to reestablish a six-point advantage.
• Knouse and Bethea combined for seven of the Hawks' nine points heading into the media timeout, holding a 58-56 lead.
• Leading by three with 2:26 to play, the Hawks forced three consecutive stops on the defensive end as Faith Stinson's layup gave the Hawks a five-point lead with under one minute remaining.
• The Hawks closed the game a perfect 6-for-6 from the free-throw line in the final minute to secure a 69-60 victory inside Hagan Arena.

 
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE

• Gabby Casey scored a team-high 15 points while adding seven rebounds, four steals, one block and two assists.
• Emily Knouse scored 14 points off the bench, finishing 4-for-8 with a season-high three steals to go along with a pair of assists.
• Faith Stinson was the third Hawk to score in double digits, finishing with 11 points and six rebounds.
• Kaylinn Bethea finished with a season-high nine points, connecting on seven of her eight free throws. The freshman guard added four rebounds and two assists.
• Saint Joseph's shot 20-for-54 (37.0%) from the field, finishing with a season-high 23 made free throws on 29 attempts for a 79.3 percent clip.
• The Hawks outrebounded the Explorers 42-35, while the Saint Joseph's bench produced a 26-4 advantage in points.
• La Salle finished 20-for-57 (35.1%) from the floor, led by a game-high 19 points from Aryss Macktoon. Four of the five Explorer starters finished in double figures.
• Saint Joseph's improved to 56-16 all-time against La Salle, the second-most wins against a single opponent in program history (Rhode Island – 60). Cindy Griffin collected her 32^nd win against the Explorers, the most against any team under her 25-year tenure.

 
UP NEXT
Saint Joseph's returns to the road Wednesday to face St. Bonaventure on Jan. 14. Tipoff is scheduled for 6 p.m.