Women lose to Dayton

By Anthony Bonagura
Collegian Staff
March 21, 2007

As the regular season ended for the La Salle women’s basketball team, Coach Tom Lochner prepared his players for the A-10 Championships which were held at the Cintas Center, home of the Xavier Musketeers.

Junior Carlene Hightower and Senior Crista Ricketts were the Explorers’ biggest
weapons this season. - Mike Dao

The Explorers played their first and only matchup of the tournament Friday, March 2, and, surprisingly, were upset by the ninth-seeded Dayton Flyers, 57-43, in the A-10 tournament opening round game.

Dayton took control early by going on a 21-6 run and never looked back. Dayton shot just over 53 percent from the floor in the first half and followed up on the defensive side, only allowing the Explorers to make five total shots before the halftime break. Both teams went to the locker room with the Flyers in the lead, 33-17.

The Explorers (19-11, 7-8) tried to correct some of their first half mistakes entering the second half, but they could not overcome the deficit and the Flyers kept it to a double digit lead the rest of the way.

“We couldn’t shoot the ball at all and to add, Ricketts and Hightower were constantly double-teamed,” Lochner said. “When we did take shots, we couldn’t make any. We cleaned up a little bit in the second half, but we still had problems.”

In Crista Ricketts’ final collegiate game, she scored a game-high 17 points and added seven rebounds and four steals. Senior Jenna Graber finished her career with six points on two three-pointers to go with three rebounds. Junior Carlene Hightower, who was recently named to the All-Conference First Team and was a two-time A-10 Player of the Week this season had a tough day. Despite scoring the first basket of the game, she finished with only six points and seven rebounds. She also committed six turnovers. This La Salle team, which has shot the ball well all year went 2-for-8 from behind the arc and shot under 30 percent from the field for the game.

Nikki Oakland carried Dayton to victory, totaling 15 points. She was accompanied by Brittany Holterman, who chipped in with 12 points and four rebounds. The Flyers went to the free throw line only a combined seven times during the game. However, they made up in other areas, including dishing out more assists, making more field goals, committing less turnovers and having seven more blocks than the Explorers.

Looking towards next season, Lochner and his staff already seem to have a productive lineup waiting in the wings. Hightower will be a senior and has become the focal point of the offense. She is complemented by seniors Melanie Gibbons, Meghan Ahl and Alyse Hoover.

Tara Lapetina and Antonia Gale will return with two years of experience under their belts, and all three non-redshirt freshmen in Jamie Walsh, Morgan Robertson and Danielle Mickiewicz return as sophomores. But the redshirts and recruits are what everyone is anticipating.

“Margaret [Elderton] is a transfer from Maine who is a good combo guard that can either run the one or two,” said Lochner. “One of our redshirt freshmen is Chelsea Conner, who stands at six-foot-three and has come along very nicely in practice. Our second redshirt freshman is Shelly Szmyt, who is a physical guard with a lot of upside.”

To say that one of the recruits entering next year has some established experience with a current player is an understatement.

“Ashley Gale (the sister of Antonia) is very athletic and can play the wing, and she is effective from behind the arc,” said Coach Lochner.

La Salle will have to part ways with seniors Crista Ricketts and Jenna Graber at the end of the school year, but by how confident the coaches are in their roster, there are many reasons to stay optimistic for next year.

bonaguraa1@lasalle.edu