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Hank Davis has his senior moment in La Salle's senior day

03/04/2017, 6:00pm EST
By Austin Petolillo

La Salle's Hank Davis (above) received a huge ovation with some late-game excitement on Senior Day. (Photo: Greg Carroccio/La Salle Athletics)

Austin Petolillo (@AustinPSports)
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One Shining Moment: no better song can encapsulate the hysteria, the energy and of course the madness that the month of March provides for College Basketball and it’s fans.

For La Salle University’s senior walk-on guard Hank Davis, his one shining moment came in the final minutes of La Salle’s 66-54 senior day victory over Fordham on Saturday at Tom Gola Arena.

With 1:28 remaining in the game, La Salle’s head coach Dr. John Giannini subbed in the fan-favorite Davis to a loud applause and standing ovation from the home faithful. What soon followed was nothing short of magical.

Fifty-eight seconds remained on the game clock when Fordham hit a three-pointer to cut the deficit to 10.

La Salle then inbounded the ball to Davis who somehow managed to weave through the Fordham defenders in the backcourt, made a nice crossover move at the three-point line and then finally, got fouled on his way to the basket as the ball kissed off the glass and went in.

Judging by the crowd reaction, you would have thought La Salle hit a full-court buzzer beating shot to win the NCAA Tournament.

“I was excited that I was able to get in there at the end and finish off with a bang,” an elated Davis said. 

Soon after he hit the free throw to seal the deal for the Explorers, the Cherry Hill East (N.J.) product then hit two more free throws down the stretch with 13 seconds left in the game and came out of the game to a thunderous standing ovation from the La Salle fans and even the Fordham fans.

“I was thrilled for Hank.” Giannini said. “He’s a great student, Big 5 scholar athlete of the year, he recently interviewed at Temple and Rowan medical schools and whatever medical school gets him is going to get the best human-being I’ve ever been around and I hope that they know that.”

Before Saturday’s game, Davis had only appeared in six games for the Explorers this season playing a total of eight minutes and scoring a total of three points, one assist and two turnovers.

Even though he does not get the opportunity to play every game, that does not mean his impact isn’t felt within the team.

“Hank’s role is prominent for us everyday,” Giannini said. “People on gameday might not know how hard he works or how much he sacrifices.”

“I don’t know many people like Hank,” senior guard Jordan Price said. “He comes in every day and sacrifices time. He could be studying or doing anything else but Hank comes in and fights through blood sweat and tears.”

As for the game itself, La Salle really struggled in the first half shooting only 9-26 (35 percent) from the field but came to life in the second half shooting an impressive 13-of-22 (59 percent) from the field.

“We struggled early in the game today and part of it is, when we had some injuries, we limited practice to defensive drills, conditioning drills and offensive drills and tried not to get guys hurt.” Giannini said. “but sometimes when you don’t go live action five-on-five, maybe your reactions aren’t that sharp and I think that might be one of our issues offensively.”

Leading the way for La Salle were juniors B.J Johnson who finished the game with 19 points and one rebound shy from a double-double, Amar Stukes, who finished with no points but had 10 assists and seven rebounds, and the Explorers also received help from Price, who had 10 points and was also one rebound away from a double-double.

Heading into today’s game against Fordham, La Salle had lost seven of it’s previous 10 games after winning seven of it’s previous 10 before that.

“I’m thrilled, we’ve been struggling, we needed the win and we’re excited about the A-10 Tournament,” Giannini said.

A win like this can be huge for a team in their last game before the conference tournament and the way this game ended with the senior walk-on having his one shining moment on senior day, it can really build momentum for the Explorers.

“Just take it one game at a time.” Price said. “We have to win four games so we’re going to take it one game at a time. We know what we can do so we’re going to build off this win today and get ready at practice on Monday.”

With the win, La Salle improved to 15-14 overall and 9-9 in A-10 play and are guaranteed to play on Thursday in the A-10 tournament. The seed and opponent is yet to be determined.

For seniors like Davis, Price and Cleon Roberts, Saturday marked the last home game for the trio as La Salle basketball players.

“It’s definitely been the best four years of my life.” Price said. “I appreciate everything that La Salle has done for me. They picked me up when many people doubted me and many people did not want me but La Salle chose to let me come and be apart of something great.”

“It’s the best thing I’ve ever been apart of and it’s sad that it’s my last year but hopefully we have a lot more to go.” Davis said

While important, Giannini seems to care more about his three seniors’ growth as people rather than as basketball players.

“When we do struggle we do come back and our kids are still great and our culture is still great and they deserve credit for that and their families deserve a lot of credit for that as well.” Giannini said.

“They sent fine young men and we’re proud to have them.”


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