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Rhode Island's stout defense propels Rams past La Salle

02/21/2017, 11:15pm EST
By David Gough

David Gough (@dg0ugh)
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A rematch between a top offense and a top defense in the Atlantic 10 proved to be a different result on Tuesday night.

In the first one, La Salle got the best of the Rams in Rhode Island when it scored more than any other Rhody opponent this season on January 12.

The Rams came into Tuesday night as the second best defense in the conference and it was much more successful against La Salle the second time around.

La Salle -- which came into Tuesday night’s home game as the second best scoring offense in the Atlantic 10 -- was absolutely stifled by Rhode Island’s defense throughout the game as it fell 67-56.

“We played great at their place. It was probably our best game and their worst game. Today was probably one of their best games of the year. I give them all the credit in the world,” La Salle head coach John Giannini said.

For much of the first half, it looked like it was going to be a tight contest and the Explorers’ (14-12, 8-7) offense was going to maybe reach 87 points like it did the last time against the Rams; it was a 26-26 ballgame with 8:09 left to play in the first half after back-to-back 3-point plays by redshirt-junior Amar Stukes.

That’s when the Rams’ defense took over the game. La Salle went 0-for-8 from the field along with five turnovers for the rest of the half and found itself trailing by 10 at halftime.

The Explorers couldn’t recover in the second half as Rhode Island stretched its lead to as much 18 in the late going.

“[Rhode Island’s] defense won the game. They really played highest level defense,” Giannini said. “When you got big, strong, athletic, quick veteran guys [who are] relentless and making it hard, the game’s not going to be pretty.”

La Salle committed 13 turnovers all game-- as close to its average of 12.8 you can get -- but nine of them came in the first half that let the game get away.

The Explorers did better handling the ball in the second half, but they just couldn’t knock down many shots, shooting just 19-of-53 (35.8 percent) from the field in the contest.

They had nine total makes as a team in the first half, just one more than Rhode Island’s Jared Terrell had by himself in the first 20 minutes.

The 6-foot-3 junior played a huge role in the Rams’ hot start scoring 18 of their first 40 points. He finished tying his career-high 24 -- which he did against St. Joe’s back on January 3 -- nearly doubling every one who stepped on the court on Tuesday.

“You got a body like that shooting the ball from deep and being explosive off the dribble. We would have loved to stop him. He’s a big time player,” Giannini said.

Despite the offensive struggle for La Salle, four of its players still reached double digits in points in the game led by redshirt-sophomore Pookie Powell.

The Memphis transfer had 14 points in the game on 6-of-14 (42.8 percent) shooting in his third game back in the lineup. It’s his most since he came back from a knee injury that kept him out for six games.

Still, Giannini believes he’s not back to full health yet. The same goes for redshirt-junior B.J. Johnson, who sat out at George Mason back on February 4 with a sprained ankle.

It was Johnson’s fifth game back in a stretch that included 26 points in his first game back. The Syracuse transfer, however, scored 12 points and went just 4-of-12 (33.3 percent) from the field on Tuesday. He also committed a season-high five turnovers for a third time.

“I do think you need your best players to really play well. I still don’t think B.J. and Pookie are -- I know they’re not, especially Pookie -- a 100 percent,” Giannini said.

Giannini didn’t leave the game discouraged with his team, despite it scoring 31 fewer points than the last time it played Rhode Island (18-9, 10-5) and shooting ten points lower than its season average. He knows how good the Rams can be.

Rhody was ranked during the first month of the season and they beat now-No. 15 Cincinnati on November 19. With their win on Tuesday, the Rams kept pace with Richmond for third place in the conference.

The Explorers had a chance to move into sixth place with a win, but they remain in seventh as George Mason has a tiebreaker over them.

They have three games to make up ground before the Atlantic 10 Tournament starts on March 8. After a little bit of a break, they’ll begin that stretch at Massachusetts this Sunday for a 1:00 game.

“I feel good. I feel like this game will make us better,” Giannini said. “I mean when you play against a team like [Rhode Island], believe it or not it makes you better.”


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