Women's College Basketball: Explorers, Hawks, Lions lose

La Salle struggled with an anemic 32.7 percent shooting percentage yesterday and fell to Binghamton, 53-47, at the Tom Gola Arena.

The Explorers (3-4) almost overcame that inefficiency near the end.

Trailing by 49-40 with 3 minutes, 35 seconds left, La Salle moved to within a basket on Morgan Robertson's layup at 49-47 with 1:39 to go, but went scoreless the rest of the way.

Andrea Jones' layup with 26 seconds gave Binghamton (4-4) some insurance, and the Bearcats added two more points on Erica Carter's foul shots with three seconds left.

"Anybody who has really gotten after us defensively has taken us out of anything we want to do offensively," La Salle coach Tom Lochner said. "Anything. We have not been able shoot the ball well against anybody playing in-your-face defense."

The Explorers set a school record with 13 three-pointers in their last game, a narrow loss at Morgan State. Yesterday, they shot 7 for 21.

"If we continue to have our offensive woes, we're going to have to create some offense through defense by trying to cause turnovers," Lochner said.

Robertson, collecting a game-high 12 points, was the only La Salle player to score in double figures.

Hartford 80, St. Joseph's 56 -

In a nonconference game between teams whose mascot is the Hawk, Hartford prevailed at Chase Arena and extended the nation's longest women's home-court streak to 29 games.

Amy Gillespie scored 17 points for St. Joseph's (4-4) and Mariame Djouara added 15 points. Diana Delva scored 20 points for Hartford (5-4).

Dayton 67, Penn State 66 -

The Flyers (6-3) stopped the Nittany Lions' nonconference home winning streak at 16 at Bryce Jordan Arena as Patrice Lalor and Kristin Daugherty each scored 14 points. Tyra Grant scored 14 points for Penn State (4-4) and Julia Trogele, a graduate of Villa Maria Academy, added 12.

Elsewhere:

Karima Blackwell scored 27 points and had 14 rebounds for

Rutgers-Camden

in a 68-67 loss to host

New Jersey City

. . . . Behind 13 points and 12 rebounds from Angel Stephens,

Cheyney

posted a 59-53 win at host

Newport News Apprentice School

. . . . Brittany Lattisaw scored 18 points and grabbed 11 rebounds for host

Haverford

in a 59-53 loss to

Elizabethtown

. . . . Kathryn Stockbower scored 25 points for host

Swarthmore

in a 70-63 win over

Johns Hopkins

. . . . Jaclyn Hilf scored 21 points for host

Ursinus

in a 69-66 loss to

Gettysburg

. . . . Off the bench, Sonia Johnson scored 17 points, but

Delaware

State

fell to

Syracuse

, 56-37, in Syracuse, N.Y.

California 75, Princeton 53 -

Ashley Walker shook off a sluggish start to score 21 points, and the No. 3 Bears (7-0) downed the Tigers (3-3) in the first round of the Collier's International Classic in Berkeley, Calif.

Whitney Downs had a career-high 24 points for Princeton.

UC-Riverside 50, Vanderbilt 47 -

Kemie Nkele amassed 17 points and eight rebounds and the Highlanders (3-4) held the No. 16 Commodores (8-2) scoreless for the final 2:31 to earn an upset in Riverside, Calif.