Photos/Videos: Ryan Nix & Ed Morrone
By: Ed Morrone
PHILADELPHIA — With her team a perfect 16-for-16 at the foul line and suddenly clinging to a two-point lead with less than a second remaining on the clock, what exactly was Gabby Crawford thinking when she strode to the stripe with a chance to put the game away?
Absolutely nothing, as it turns out.
“Honestly, I wasn’t thinking at all,” the La Salle junior forward said with a laugh. “When I think, that’s when I miss. I went up to the line, took my deep breaths and just believed that I was going to make them.”
Spoiler alert: Crawford made them both, giving the Explorers a hard-fought 69-65 win at Saint Joseph’s, a game La Salle both trailed by nine early and led by the same margin in the closing minutes before nearly frittering it all away.
La Salle ended up converting all 18 free throws, including a flawless 9-for-9 from Crawford en route to an ultra-efficient 15-point performance in just 14 minutes of play.
Not too shabby for a player on her third team in four years.
SJU vs. La Salle Highlights - PSD Video by Ed Morrone
“It just shows the level of trust we have in her,” La Salle head coach Mountain MacGillivray said. “She hasn’t run our stuff as much as everyone else, but at the end of the game we are going to put the ball in her hands to take fouls, get to the line and make her free throws. She’s had 15 points or more in three of her four games, and Gabby can score, rebound and play defense. She’s been a big part of our recent success.”
The Memphis native began her collegiate career at Mississippi in 2018-19 before transferring to Morehead State. After sitting out 2019-20 as a transfer, Crawford averaged 12.4 points and almost nine rebounds per game last year before deciding to transfer again, this time to La Salle. Because Crawford was a late transfer, it wasn’t clear if she’d be eligible for this season, but the Explorers sorted things out and welcomed her into the lineup four games ago on Dec. 18. In those four games, the 6-foot-2 forward is averaging 13.8 points and 4.8 rebounds in 18.5 minutes per game off the bench, adding another front-court weapon to complement senior leading scorer Kayla Spruill.
La Salle junior transfer Gabby Crawford went a perfect 9-9 at the line en route to an Explorer victory vs. SJU - PSD Photo by Ryan Nix
Collegiate basketball has become a transfer-happy sport, and it can become difficult to forge relationships. Crawford said this much was the case at her first two stops, but not at La Salle, where she has been welcomed with open embraces despite being so new.
“I say this all the time jokingly, but this is probably the most I’ve ever spoken to any of my teammates,” Crawford said. “I don’t really speak a lot (in general), and they just took me in. I just really felt loved coming here, and I’ve never really had that experience before. Coming here has really been a blessing.”
The nationally-televised win improved the Explorers to 9-6 overall, and 2-1 in both Atlantic 10 and Big 5 play. La Salle trailed by nine late in the first quarter but eventually chased down a much younger Hawks team that starts three freshmen.
The Explorers won the second quarter 25-13, and much of this was thanks to the dynamic Spruill, who somehow had an even more efficient game than Crawford. The senior from Baltimore scored a game-high 19 points, shooting 6-for-7 from the field, 3-for-3 from three and 4-for-4 from the line and now leads La Salle in scoring (15.0) and rebounding (8.4). She is the engine that makes La Salle run.
“This was only their fourth game where they were both able to be on the floor together,” MacGillivray said of the Spruill-Crawford tandem. “Kayla has led us all year, and I joked with her that it must have been an easy night for her because that was the easiest 19 points I’ve ever seen her score.”
It was a tough night for the Hawks (5-10, 1-2, 2-2 Big 5), but for a squad with five freshmen and two sophomores on the roster, the beginning and end of the game were positive signs for head coach Cindy Griffin and company. La Salle led by five at half and six after three, but it always appeared to be anyone’s game.
Spruill scored with 3:28 left to play to give the Explorers a 63-54 lead, and the result seemed to be in hand. But the Hawks three times pulled to within two points before Crawford iced the game with less than a second remaining, and some of Griffin’s youngsters had big-time performances in a gritty Big 5 contest, which will only aid the team as it aims to be playing its best basketball in February and March.
Freshman forward Talya Brugler had 16 points and seven rebounds for the Hawks, while fellow freshman Mackenzie Smith connected on four of six three-pointers on her way to a team-high 17 points.
SJU vs. La Salle - PSD Gallery by Ryan Nix
Julia Nystrom, the third first-year player to start against La Salle, chipped in with six points and six assists. As a team, the Hawks had 20 assists on 25 field goals (a career-high 12 helpers for grad student Katie Jekot), shot 7-for-16 from deep and out-rebounded the Explorers by eight (36-28).
“We missed a lot of free throws and layups, and we can’t get those back,” Griffin said. “I told them that we worked hard enough to get them, so now we have to be good enough to make them. That’s the next step for a team like this in this type of game. We want to be winning games now, but we’re also working on playing our best ball at the end of the year.”
Added Brugler: “These Philly Big 5 games are all very gritty. We fought to the end, and it teaches us to be persistent the whole game. Every possession matters, even if it doesn’t seem like it in the first and second quarters, but everything adds up at the end. One of our mottos is to be selfless, and when we are, we play better together.”
La Salle Post Game Press Conference with head coach Mountain MacGillivray, Gabby Crawford & Kayla Spruill - PSD VIdeo by Ed Morrone
SJU Post Game Interviews with Mackenzie Smith, head coach Cindy Griffin & Talya Brugler - PSD Video by Ed Morrone
If La Salle missed a couple of foul shots, then maybe this one ends a bit differently. But this game belonged to the size and experience of the Explorers, who were calm and cool anytime the pressure was ratcheted up. This wasn’t an enormous surprise, because after all, La Salle shoots just a shade under 80 percent at the line, which ranks in the top-10 nationally.
“We don’t shoot as many as you might think (at practice),” MacGillivray said. “But every one we do shoot, if someone misses, their teammates run. So, there’s pressure on every free throw we shoot in practice, and that led to them not being affected by the moment today.”