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La Salle holds off Mercer despite B.J. Johnson's injury

12/17/2017, 8:30pm EST
By Owen McCue

B.J. Johnson (above, last month) injured his ankle in La Salle's win. (Photo: Josh Verlin/CoBL)

Owen McCue (@Owen_McCue)
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With just under 11 minutes to go in La Salle’s game against Mercer on Sunday, B.J. Johnson fell to the ground and didn’t get up, screaming in pain and holding his left ankle.

Moments later, Johnson was helped off the court by Explorers' forward Cian Sullivan and an Explorers’ assistant and headed into the locker room, where he remained for the rest of the game.

The Explorers had a 20-point lead when Johnson exited the game at the 10:28 mark. Less than four minutes later it was down to single digits.

Redshirt-junior guard Pookie Powell made sure the team regained it's composure.

“Obviously when B.J. went down it hurt us,” Powell said. “I just told the team when we were in the huddle, ‘Just stay poised. We still got the lead. Let’s take smart shots and just play our basketball."

Guided by Powell, who finished with 24 points, La Salle survived the Johnson injury and held off Mercer for a 95-85 win at Tom Gola Arena on Sunday.

“It happens occasionally, it stinks every time it does happen,” La Salle coach John Giannini said of the Johnson injury. “But you just have to respond.”

Johnson scored his 25th point on jumper to give La Salle a 72-49 lead with 11:20 to go in the game. A three by Mercer senior guard Ria’n Holland, who finished with a game-high 33 points, made it 72-52 before Johnson exited the game a minute later.

Mercer went on a 14-2 run with Johnson out and by the 7:52 mark had La Salle’s lead down to nine. Powell, the Explorers’ second leading scorer behind Johnson, helped steady La Salle’s offense.

Powell had just three points in the first half, but he scored 21 in the second half, including nine straight La Salle points upon Johnson’s departure to help get the Explorers’ lead back up to double digits.

“It was a big turnaround when B.J. went down," Powell said. "But coming from the second leader...I just told those guys to stay together and we’re going to win this game.”

After Powell’s run, sophomore guard Saul Phiri made a handful of big plays down the stretch. Phiri, who is averaging 4.5 points per game, scored eight points in the last three and a half minutes, including two crucial 3-point shots.

Sophomore guard Isiah Deas found senior guard Johnnie Shuler, who had a season high 13 points, wide open down low for a bucket late. Shuler, Phiri and Powell each hit a pair of free throws as La Salle went 6-for-6 from the line in the game’s final minute to seal the win.

“It put a lot of pressure on us to hang on, and that’s not bad experience,” Gianinni said. “That’s not bad experience before January. It probably makes your team a little bit better to make some big free throws, not turn it over against the press, than just to coast in to a win.”

Johnson has been one of the best players not just in the city, but the country this season.

He came into Sunday’s game averaging 21.5 points and 9.2 rebounds per game, ranking in the Top 50 in both categories nationally. Only seven other players in the country, including Duke freshman Marvin Bagley III and Notre Dame’s Bonzie Colson could boast the same claim.

Despite missing the last 10 minutes and 28 seconds of Sunday’s game, Johnson led the Explorers with 25 points and was tied for the team lead with eight rebounds. He also played 30 minutes, which was still the second most behind Powell.

After Sunday’s win, Giannini said he didn’t know anything about Johnson’s injury other than that it was an ankle injury.

La Salle’s next game is Friday against Bucknell to finish off the team’s non-conference slate. After that, the Explorers are off until Dec. 30, when they will play St. Louis at home to start their Atlantic-10 schedule.

“Hopefully we have enough time to get B.J. healthy, whether it’s before Bucknell or before the A-10,” Giannini said. “Obviously he was having a great game. Obviously it affected us when he went out.”

If Johnson can’t go, what will La Salle do?

“We’ll play without him,” Giannini said. “We won’t change what we do. We’ll just play without him.”


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