La Salle hot at tourney time

By Anthony Bonagura
Collegian Staff
February 28, 2007

The La Salle women’s basketball team finished its 2006-2007 regular season on a superb note by beating the Charlotte 49ers and the St. Louis Billikens. These consecutive home wins, following their Fordham victory last Saturday, made it a three-game winning stint, as the team moves into the A-10 Championships starting Friday.

Senior Crista Ricketts goes to the basket against Charlotte Thursday night. - Mike Dao

La Salle (19-10, 7-7) hosted Charlotte (18-11, 9-5) on Thursday, and led by junior Carlene Hightower (17.9 ppg, 7.1 rpg), the Explorers defeated the 49ers, 71-62. Charlotte was in a full court press almost the entire game, forcing the Explorers to turn the ball over 21 times. However, Hightower raised her game and led the squad on the path to victory. Hightower shot 11 for 16 from the floor and was nine of 11 from the charity stripe, giving her a career-high 31 points in the matchup. Her 31 points are the most scored by an Explorer woman at Tom Gola Arena. Her career-high in scoring was accompanied by six rebounds, four steals and three assists.

Senior Crista Ricketts (17.0 ppg, 7.5 rpg) shared the spotlight, scoring 17 points and grabbing six rebounds to go along with two assists and two blocks. With the assistance of both Hightower and Ricketts, La Salle outscored Charlotte 38-26 in the paint, which was a significant factor, considering that Charlotte had three players over six feet, two inches.

Another milestone was achieved by an Explorer that night. Junior Meghan Ahl chipped in with a career-high seven assists, which is the team-high of the season. She also recorded three points and three rebounds in a career-high 29 minutes. Since the Fordham game, Ahl has seen a considerable amount of minutes as she has moved into a more definitive role on the team.

“Meghan is pretty good at handling pressure,” said assistant coach Stacey Smalls. “This was the type of game for her. Charlotte pressured a lot, and since she’s fast, she was able to get up the floor and break [the press] and it worked out. She kept her calm game and she played well.”

Two days later, Saint Louis (12-16, 4-10) visited the Tom Gola Arena, and there was no underestimating the sub-par Billikens on this day, as the game ended up going to overtime. In a game where there were 15 ties and 11 lead changes, St. Louis eventually faltered and lost, 75-66. The win gave the Explorers 10 victories at home, which ties the best mark ever at Tom Gola Arena.

It was senior day for the Explorers, and Crista Ricketts and Jenna Graber were acknowledged for their four years of hard work and dedication by family, fans, faculty and the coaching staff. Ricketts finished the final game of the regular season with 21 points, nine rebounds, three assists and two blocks. Going into the game, Graber was seventh in the country in three-point percentage (43.0) and her 58 threes were fourth best ever at La Salle. Graber (6.9 ppg) hit two trifectas in the game and went 2-for-2 from the free throw line for a total of eight points.

La Salle started out slow in the game, turning the ball over four times early on. Carlene Hightower got the ball rolling when she stole an in-bound pass and layed it up for two to tie the game at 21. Hightower finished the game with 22 points, seven rebounds, three assists and three steals. With Hightower’s seven rebounds, she and Ricketts have become the first duo in La Salle history to score at least 400 points and grab 200 rebounds in the same season. This is the sixth time both players have scored over 20 points in the same game.

“They both really stepped up,” La Salle head coach Tom Lochner said about the impact of Ricketts and Hightower. “They’re not only good individual players, but they’re good team players and they can find their teammates when they get double-teamed. They’re very unselfish and they have really led this team to a good regular season so far.”

With 35 seconds left in the second half, Ricketts kicked it to a wide open Jamie Walsh (5.0 ppg, 44 percent 3-pt fg), who sank the trifecta in the corner, putting La Salle up 55-54 and eventually moving the game into overtime.

It was all La Salle in OT, where the Explorers shot 100 percent from the field and went 12-15 from the free-throw line. Ricketts scored 12 of her 21 points in overtime and got the Explorers their 19th victory of the season.

After an impressive week of Explorer basketball, it was only fitting to award a player for her achievements. Hightower was named Atlantic 10 and Philadelphia Big 5 Player of the Week. It is her second weekly honor from the A-10 this season. During the week, Hightower shot slightly over 63 percent from the floor, averaging 26.5 points, 6.5 rebounds, 3.5 steals and 3.0 assists. Hightower is second in the A-10 in scoring, first in steals, fifth in defensive rebounds and 10th in free throw percentage.

Three wins should provide a huge momentum shift for the Explorers moving into the A-10 Championships.

“A win in the last three and playing very good basketball, hopefully we can ride this momentum and keep playing the same way in Ohio on Friday,” Lochner said.

Cincinnati is La Salle’s destination, where the eighth-seeded Explorers will face the Dayton Flyers Friday for a noon face-off. One or two wins in the tournament should give the Explorers a legitimate shot for the NIT, and winning the A-10 tourney will give them an NCAA Tournament birth.

Although they are headed to Cincinnati this weekend, the Explorers hope it is not their final destination of the season.

bonaguraa1@lasalle.edu