Ashleigh Connor finished a layup through contact with two-tenths of a second remaining to lift No. 14 La Salle over No. 11 Virginia Commonwealth, 50-49, in the first round of the Atlantic 10 women’s tournament Wednesday evening at the Henrico Sports & Events Center in Glen Allen, Va.
Before her game-winning shot, the redshirt sophomore guard was 1-for-7 for two points. She finished with four points and four assists. Freshman guard Joan Quinn, who was named to the A-10 all-rookie team earlier this week, led the Explorers (10-22, 4-15 A-10) with 12 points on 4-for-6 shooting. Aryss Macktoon had 11 points and five rebounds.
Mary-Anna Asare led VCU (12-19, 6-13) in the loss with 20 points, seven of which came in the fourth quarter.
The win is the Explorers’ first in the A-10 tournament since the 2020-21 season. They advance to face No. 6 Dayton (17-12, 11-7) on Thursday (7 p.m., ESPN+).
Same teams, same story
Connor’s game-winning shot gave La Salle its first back-to-back victories since a three-game win streak in November. The Explorers claimed consecutive wins over the Rams, both by one point. The Explorers closed out their regular season with a 61-60 victory over VCU at John Glaser Arena on March 1.
“It’s really hard to play a team you just beat, and then play them again,” La Salle coach Mountain MacGillivray said. “Especially a team as talented as they are.”
In the senior day matchup, the victory was sealed by a VCU miss. In the tournament matchup, Connor would be the hero after a play intended for Macktoon broke down. Connor collected the ball above the three-point line and drove to her left on Rams sophomore forward Lucía Sotelo. She finished through a foul from Sotelo to give the Explorers the game’s final advantage.
“Originally that play was for [Macktoon],” Connor said. “It was for me to drive and then feed it into her, and for her to do her really high jump and put it in. But, the defense was playing off, and she wasn’t open, so I was like, ‘I’m going to take it left.’ I put the shot up, and it went in. It’s something that we do all the time. I wasn’t having my best game, but [it was the] right moment at the right time.”
Swiping Explorers
La Salle benefited from applying a suffocating halfcourt zone defense that prevented VCU from playing at a faster, higher-scoring pace. One aspect of the Explorers’ defensive success was disrupting the Rams’ passing lanes. La Salle recorded 13 steals Wednesday, accounting for more than half of VCU’s 22 turnovers.
The Explorers converted 11 points off VCU turnovers, but the disruption of the Rams’ offense proved to be more important. In the second quarter, La Salle limited VCU to four points while sitting in its zone defense.
By changing defensive looks to a “buzz” defense, with Quinn and Connor trapping the ballhandler near halfcourt on the Rams’ final offensive possession, the Explorers were able to prevent the Rams from driving through the lane.
VCU freshman guard Cyriah Griffin was forced into a difficult layup attempt late in the shot clock. MacGillivray called for the trap after using it successfully in the March 1 matchup.
“You know they’re trying to run a play for somebody to get downhill,” MacGillivray said. “We went to the buzz and it paid off.”
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