Marquette University Athletics
Marquette University
La Salle
Marquette Women's Basketball Handles LaSalle 63-54
12/8/2001 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Dec. 8, 2001
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The Marquette women's basketball team beat LaSalle 63-54 today at the U.S. Cellular Arena behind the solid play of junior center Rachel Klug.
Klug had her best all around game of the season scoring 16 points and grabbing a career high 13 rebounds. Her previous season high was six rebounds, she surpassed that mark with 9:33 in the first half. Klug also recorded her first career double-double.
"We needed this win bad," said Klug. "We needed this to get back on the winning track, we knew coming into this game that we needed to win."
The Golden Eagles got off to a good start in the first half and built a comfortable lead following a 8-0 run in the middle of the first half. During that run, Klug scored five of her nine first half points during that run. Marquette built their lead to as much as 13 in the first half.
Marquette continued to hold their lead in the second half until LaSalle began their run, bringing them within four points with less thean eight minutes in the game. LaSalle hung around until Marquette rattled off five straight points to give them a more comfortable lead of nine with 2:50 left in the game.
"At the 2:50 mark of the second half my assistant coach, Kevin McManaman said to me that we had a nine point lead at that point in the second half," said head coach Terri Mitchell. "I wasn't thinking Wisconsin, I was thinking that I need to grow, just like my players."
Despite shooting only 29.5% in the game, the Golden Eagles managed to hang on with help from strong rebounding. Marquette outrebounded LaSalle 50-32 and grabbed 21 offensive rebounds to LaSalle's seven.
"They had 21 offensive rebounds, because of that, they took more shots and more free throws," said LaSalle head coach John Miller. "We held them to 29 percent shooting on the floor, I'd like to think part of that was our defense."
Freshman guard Katie Alsdurf continued her strong freshman season adding 14 points and six rebounds for the Golden Eagles. Leading the way for LaSalle was senior guard Suzanne Keilty who scored 13 points.
"Katie (Alsdurf) is not afraid to shoot," said Mitchell. "The challenge for her is to decide when to shoot. You are talking about a freshman that is willing to step up. These are good minutes for her, we are still trying to find ourselves, but we know our two scorers are Katie and Rachel and now we need others to step up."
With the win, the Golden Eagles improve to 3-5 on the season and will next face Dayton at the Al McGuire Court at the Bradley Center on Dec. 16 at 2 p.m.
