Free throws are important. Cliché? Maybe. True? Ask the Lakers. In their fourth straight loss of the season, they fouled Gannon 22 times and Gannon converted on 74% of the free throws that resulted. In the first half, Gannon shot 11-12 from the free throw line, which is 11 points and the Lakers were down by only seven at the end of the first half. So, theoretically, if even half of those fouls had not happened, the Lakers would have gone into the half with a possible tie. Most of Jaclyn Armstrong’s 19 bench points came from her 9-14 shooting at the free throw line.

“We play a very aggressive style of defense and are going to give up some free throw attempts.  With our team being so young, we are learning how to be aggressive without fouling, but that definitely takes some time. Gannon was good at getting out on the break and putting the pressure back on us to stop them.  We needed to take care of the ball and make some shots in order to get our defense set up.”, explained Head Coach Jamie Pewinski.

This game was not played well from the three point line by either team, though. LSSU shot only 1-8 (12.5%) in the first half from downtown, while Gannon had a slight edge in that department shooting 2-8 (25%). Not much changed in the second half as LSSU shot 4-14 (28.6%) and Gannon shot 3-9 (33.3%).

The rebounding battle was won the Lakers by one rebound, and was a team effort. Emily Joseph and Shalyn Beauchamp both contributed 7, Alyssa VanderWal and Danielle Makins grabbed 6, while three other Lakers grabbed 3 each.

Though the score does not reveal it, the game was relatively close. LSSU was within seven points, neglecting a one minute short run by Gannon near the end of the half, in the first.

Playing through some rough periods in the second half, LSSU was able to pull them selves out of a 14 point hole to cut the lead to a manageable 6 points. The run was started by Shelle Rochon’s 3 point shot with the game clock showing 2:51. Then a key steal by scrappy defensive minded Amanda Epolito gave LSSU the ball back at 2:34. Jaclyn Armstrong scored 6 second later to cut the lead to 9. Jaclyn Armstrong hit two important free throws to bring the Lakers within 7. Then Kristina Freeman made a free throw to make it an 8 point game. Then Emily Joseph scored a bucket to cut it to six. After this inspiring run, LSSU staled and had 2 turnovers and missed some shots to ice the game. Another Laker home loss, 86-72.

“Even though we lost, I thought that we played pretty well. It was our best game offensively as far as movement and playing together, but we didn’t knock the shots down.  Defensively we struggled at times, but there were a lot of signs that things are beginning to click. Overall it is a long season and we are a work in progress, but I really like where we are headed.”

Interestingly, LSSU’s season averages lead all their opponents in every statistical offensive category, per game percentage, except points.

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