Nov. 17, 2000

Box Score

BURLINGTON, Vt. (www.lafayette.edu) - The Lafayette women's basketball team tipped off its regular season Friday in Burlington, Vt., but fell to the defending America East champion Catamounts, 85-54, at the Howard Bank Classic.

The Leopards (0-1) jumped out to an 8-3 lead in the first three minutes of the game but after a Vermont timeout to regroup, the Catamounts went on their own run to go into halftime up 44-28.

Lafayette looked to starting point guard Christel Rocha (Lansing, Mich./Lansing Catholic Central), who was making her first appearance in a Leopard uniform since the 1998-99 season, to spark the offense. The senior guard finished with a team-high 13 points to go along with four steals and four rebounds. Freshman Colleen Fitzpatrick (Springfield, Pa./Academy of Notre Dame) came off the bench to add 10 points as last season's leading scorer Jennifer Bayer (Lowell, Ind./Lowell) was held to just six points by a smothering Vermont defense.

Vermont (1-0) turned to forward Morgan Hall as the offensive lift of the night, as the sophomore led all scorers with 16 points off 7-for-9 shooting, including 2-for-3 from three-point range. Dawn Cressman and Rachel Bryan also scored in double-digits for the Catamounts, finishing with 15 and 13 points, respectively.

Lafayette will meet Radford (0-1) in the consolation game of the 21st Annual Howard Bank tournament on Saturday at 3 p.m. while Vermont will meet Ole' Miss (1-0) at 5 p.m. in the championship contest.