Quick Report: La Salle 83, Saint Joseph's 68

B.J. Johnson (above) had 18 points as La Salle handled St. Joe's 83-68 on Saturday afternoon. (Photo: Josh Verlin/CoBL)

Brendan Flatley (@bflats7) &
Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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A hot-shooting start propelled La Salle out to a massive lead that proved too much for St. Joe’s to overcome as the Explorers won the Big 5 finale by a score of 83-68.

At First…

La Salle looked like it came into this game with the recent loss to Saint Joseph’s in the back of their mind. The game opened the scoring with a Jordan Price three, which turned out to be a theme early in the first half. La Salle attempted 11 3-pointers in the opening 13 minutes, making six of them, to jump out to a 19-point lead. The Explorers’ hot shooting in the opening frame wasn’t just from behind the arc, as they also shot 7 of 14 from inside the 3-point line, and 9-10 at the line to take a 44-26 lead into the half.

Turning Point…

With a 21-8 lead for La Salle at the 11:10 mark, SJU’s James Demery received a feed from Charlie Brown to cut the lead to 11, but that was quickly followed by Pookie Powell’s second three of the game to push the lead to 14. Over the next minute and 50 seconds of game time, the Explorers went on a 11-4 run that included one three each from Price and B.J. Johnson, and a Powell layup and free throw to effectively putting the game out of reach at 35-14.

Standout Stars…

Price, a 6-5 redshirt senior guard, was a major factor in the Explorers’ good shooting day. Price shot 5-10 from 3-point range en route to tying with Johnson to lead the team with 18 points. Explorers redshirt junior Amar Stukes had a (near) perfect first half logging 15 points on 5-6 shooting from the floor with two threes, 3-3 from the free throw line, three assists, and no turnovers. He went scoreless in the second half, finishing with six assists before fouling out in the game’s final minutes.

Saint Joseph’s was led by an 18-point outing from James Demery, who went 8-for-10 from the foul line and also added in seven rebounds and five assists; Brown and Chris Clover each had 13 points for the Hawks.

Noteworthy Numbers…

4: Number of Saint Joseph’s players who are out for the season. The Hawks are without starting backcourt of Shavar Newkirk (knee) and Lamarr Kimble (foot), plus stretch-forward Pierfrancesco Oliva (knee) and Lorenzo Edwards (shoulder). Newkirk and Kimble were averaging a combined 35.8 ppg before their injuries in Dec. and Feb., respectively.

10: The Explorers took advantage of a Hawks’ squad that’s severely lacking in perimeter options, making a dozen 3-pointers to St. Joe’s two. That 30-point differential in points beyond the arc proved too much for SJU to otherwise overcome.

27: La Salle’s largest lead of the game came at 69-52 with 10:08 after a 3-pointer by Cleon Roberts. St. Joe’s then went on an 18-2 run to get it down to as few as 11 with 4:56 to play before La Salle scored six straight to end any last hopes the Hawks had.

Up Next…

La Salle (14-11, 8-6 A-10) vs. Rhode Island (16-9, 8-5 CAA) - Tues., Feb. 21 @ 6 PM

Saint Joseph’s (10-16, 3-11 A-10) vs. St. Bonaventure (16-10, 8-6 A-10) - Wed., Feb. 22 @ 7 PM