City of Basketball Love

Stephen Pianovich (@SPianovich)
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Early in the third quarter, La Salle received its biggest test.

In a crucial game against their arch rival, the Explorers had jumped out to an 11-point lead and were up comfortably at halftime. But out of the intermission, they received a punch in the mouth from St. Joe’s Prep.

It was how his team responded to that punch that impressed La Salle coach Joe Dempsey. After their lead got trimmed to one point, the Explorers allowed just four points in the game’s final 11 minutes and nearly shut out the Hawks in the fourth quarter of a 55-36 win which clinched the fourth seed in the Catholic League playoffs.

“I thought it showed real character from our guys,” Dempsey said of the late play of his team. “They pushed back in the third quarter, and our body language was bad. But we pushed back and we got it going the way we wanted. Prep is a great team, very well coached. But today was our day.”

After La Salle got its lead back to eight points by the end of the third quarter – the same margin it was at halftime – St. Joe’s Prep needed another run to get back in the game. What the Hawks got was zero points in the frame until some clean-up time free throws with 10.9 seconds left.

In the quarter, the Explorers slowly but surely pulled away and Matt Paulus’ 3-pointer with less than five minutes left was the dagger, as it put La Salle up 49-34.

Big man Pete Gayhardt had 13 points and seven rebounds for the Hawks, who also got a combined 15 points from Kyle Thompson and Temi Aiyegbusi. But the rest of the team was very quiet, including the Hawks’ second-leading scorer, Darius Kinnel, who was held to just two points.

“Kinnel and Thompson can shoot from five feet behind the arc, so we wanted to make sure we extended our guards to make sure they didn’t get clean looks,” Dempsey said. “They’re 3-point ball driven and Pete Gayhardt plays really hard and we had to keep him off the glass. …I was proud that we kept them off the glass for the most part.”

Added La Salle senior Ryan McTamney: “I think we did a great job. We knew Gayhardt was going to try to go in there, and Shane (Stark) did a great job of boxing him out. Everyone stayed in front of their man and we played their guards really well. We just executed really well and it paid off.”

McTamney had quite a Senior Day in his final regular season game on La Salle’s home floor, scoring a game-best 17 points on 6-of-11 shooting and also grabbing a team-high six boards.

Five senior payers were honored before the game, including Shane Stark, who scored 12 points and pulled in three rebounds. Stark was also instrumental in the Explorers’ defensive efforts, guarding Gayhardt and also coming off with a few blocks and steals – one of which he turned into a coast-to-coast layup.

 “I was with my mom during introductions and she was a little emotional, so that made me want to play better for her and my family,” Stark said. “And I wanted to play well for Ryan and all the other seniors.”

Now it’s playoff time in the PCL. With the loss, the Hawks (13-9, 7-6 PCL) fell to the sixth-seed in the conference after starting 6-0 in league play. They’ll travel to face Roman Catholic in the quarterfinals on Friday.

Meanwhile, the Explorers (17-5, 9-4) -- who also got 12 points from point guard Jarrod Stukes -- locked up the fourth seed with the win and will get a home playoff game, as they host Archbishop Ryan with a trip to the Palestra on the line.

“It’s a great team win and I’m happy for our seniors, happy for our guys,” Dempsey said. “Proud of how we played. Seventeen wins in 22 is a testament to them. We lost nine seniors from last season and we had so many guys step up.”