City of Basketball Love

Ari Rosenfeld (@realA_rosenfeld)
--

Entering the opening game of the Big 5 schedule, a match up at the Palestra between Penn and La Salle, Explorers wing Jordan Price’s 29.3 points per game were good for the highest mark in the nation.

So it certainly wasn’t out of the question for the game to feature a 30-point performance.

The only thing that was unexpected was the source.

While Price finished with an inefficient 18 points, Penn center Darien Nelson-Henry, the only senior in the Quakers’ starting lineup, erupted for a career-high 31, dominating La Salle’s big men to shoot a blistering 14-for-19 from the field.

Coming off a 37-point drubbing at the hands of Washington, the Quakers were able to capitalize off Nelson-Henry’s career effort to earn a statement victory over the Explorers, winning by a score of 80-64.

“I don’t think any of us were playing up to our potential in the Washington game,” Nelson-Henry said. “Coming into this game I think everybody wanted to make a point out of just showing what we’re capable of and just playing to the best of our ability, and I think we did.”

It’s Penn’s first win over La Salle (3-1, 0-1 Big 5) since 2007, and the program’s first win in its Big 5 opener since 2004.

After the Quakers (4-1, 1-0) fell behind by double digits in the first half, they came out of the break playing inspired basketball, ripping off a 14-4 run to start the second period with their inside presence accounting for 13 of their first 16 points.

It was during that run that Nelson-Henry topped his previous career high of 21, set against Penn State during his sophomore year, doing so on a layup with more than 16 minutes remaining.

After a first half in which he kept his team afloat amidst some poor outside shooting, first year head coach Steve Donahue decided to make his center a focal point of the offense after the break.

“I said we’ve got to go through him, we’ve just got to, we’ve got to make this easier for everybody and figure out a way to get him the ball,” Donahue said. “I thought his poise at the top of the key, the elbow, and then at the low post, I think you’re probably selling yourself a little short by not doing that.”

There was only so much La Salle could do to stop the 6-foot-11, 265-pound behemoth down low. The Explorers tallest player, 6-foot-10 Tony Washington, gives up at least 50 pounds to Nelson-Henry, while their heaviest player, 235-pound Yevgen Sakhniuk, stands at just 6-foot-7.

With Nelson-Henry combining his immense size with a soft touch down low and a relentless work ethic in acquiring good post position, Explorers coach John Giannini found himself at a loss.

“He’s huge and skilled and comfortable and has great touch,” he said when asked about the challenge of defending Nelson-Henry. “It’s not just that he’s big, he’s big and good. he knows how to use his body and he doesn’t quit when you take away the first pass, he keeps working. And of course once he has the ball in his hands he’s absolutely wonderful.”

Able to feed off Nelson-Henry’s second half performance was leading scorer Sam Jones and the Quakers’ stable of outside shooters. After making just one three-point attempt on eight tries in the first half, Penn went 7-for-13 in the second session once Nelson-Henry really got going.

The presence of Jones, a career 41 percent three-point shooter who knocked down all four of his long-range attempts in the second half, clearly opens up the interior for Nelson-Henry, while the latter’s scoring ability in the post helps lead to open looks for Penn’s perimeter players.

With Nelson-Henry finally looking healthy following a series of maladies that have plagued him throughout his Penn career, it makes for a difficult team to guard when they have everything clicking.

“I know that we have great shooters on our team and they want to take that away from us every time, and I just want to do what I can down low to try and open that up for those guys,” Nelson-Henry said.