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City 6 Roundup (Jan. 9)

01/09/2022, 11:15pm EST
By Josh Verlin

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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A trio of women’s teams  — Drexel, La Salle, and Saint Joseph’s — all hit the road for games on Sunday, comprising the second part of a busy weekend for the City 6, even with a few postponements in the mix.

Here’s a recap of Sunday’s action; click here for Saturday’s recap:

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Kayla Spruill (above) and La Salle pulled off a big road win at Fordham on Sunday. (Photo: Josh Verlin/CoBL)

La Salle 71, Fordham 62

The Explorers hadn’t played since a Dec. 21 loss to Villanova, and they reappeared with arguably the biggest win yet in Mountain MacGillivray’s four seasons at La Salle. HerHoopStats gave La Salle (8-5, 1-0) just a 7.4% chance of winning coming into the game, the Rams (9-4, 0-1) entering on a five-game win streak that lasted the entire month of December, but the visitors were able to pull the upset.

Kayla Spruill continued her terrific senior season with a 24-point, 10-rebound double-double, her fourth of the season. Amy Jacobs added 14 and Molly Masciantonio added 10 and six rebounds.

La Salle trailed 22-10 after the first quarter and was still down by nine entering the fourth, unable to stop Fordham’s Anna DeWolfe (28 points) until crunch time. A 3-pointer by Spruill and 3-point play by Jacobs had La Salle within three before eight minutes remained, though it took until 3:22 remaining for La Salle to finally retake the lead. 

The Explorers closed on a 17-2 run, including a triple by Spruill that made it a six-point game with 1:18 remaining. The 26 points La Salle scored in the final quarter were a season high, as were the 48 second-half points.

La Salle gets back in action on Wednesday with a 6 PM game against Dayton (10-3, 1-0).
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Drexel 71, UNC-Wilmington 68 (OT)

It’s been a bit of a drawn-out process, but Amy Mallon’s Dragons are now winners of eight in a row after coming from behind to knock out the Seahawks. Drexel (10-2, 2-0) lost to Nebraska on Nov. 26 and hasn’t seen the bad side of the scoresheet since, though their two games this weekend (Friday/Sunday) were their first two since Dec. 14. 

This one was a close-fought contest all the way through: UNC-Wilmington led by two after one quarter, though Drexel had a three-point lead at the half and a six-point advantage after three. But UNC-Wilmington battled back, going up two with seven seconds remaining on a pair of free throws by Sierra DaCosta (24 points). 

That’s when Drexel senior and Souderton product Kate Connolly stepped up, knocking down a baseline jumper after Tessa Brugler (17 points, 11 rebounds) had a layup attempt blocked, the ball dropping through the net just ahead of the buzzer. 

Overtime saw the visitors do just enough to hang on, getting a big bucket from Keishana Washington (19 points) with 56 seconds left to go up three. DaCosta hit two foul shots with 22 seconds remaining, but two more Drexel foul shots in the final 20 seconds and a missed 3-pointer at the buzzer meant the Dragons escaped.

Hannah Nihill (16 points) joined her teammates in double figures while Mariah Leonard added eight points and 13 rebounds.

Drexel now returns home on Jan. 14 to play Northeastern, the first of four scheduled games in a row at the DAC.

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Virginia Commonwealth 72, Saint Joseph’s 64

It was a bit of a crazy weekend for St. Joe’s, which was supposed to play George Mason at home on Saturday, but that game was called off due to COVID problems with the Patriots, so the Hawks instead went down to Richmond to play a game which was bumped up from Jan. 23. The Rams jumped out to a 22-9 lead, and though St. Joe’s made a run at it near the end, they couldn’t quite close the gap.

Senior forward Lovin Marsicano (23 points) and freshman forward Talya Brugler (19 points, 8 rebounds) both set career highs in scoring as St. Joe’s outscored VCU 36-26 in the paint. But the Hawks were undone by poor 3-point shooting (6-of-23, 26.1%) and an inability to get to the line; VCU was 13-of-20 from the stripe, SJU just 4-of-6.

Trailing by 16 entering the fourth quarter, St. Joe’s got within five on a Marsicano layup with 5:02 left, and again on her 3-pointer with 2:10 left, but VCU was able to respond with four or five points each time. 

Saint Joseph’s (4-9, 0-1) returns to Philadelphia to host Richmond ( ) on Wednesday, with a visit from La Salle coming the following Monday.

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