City of Basketball Love

Owen McCue (Owen_McCue)
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The Explorers have had their opportunities this season.

They were tied with Miami with less than 10 minutes left and within a basket with five minutes left before falling to the nationally ranked Hurricanes.

La Salle led then-undefeated Villanova by one with five minutes left, but couldn’t hold against the Wildcats.

On Saturday afternoon at Tom Gola Arena, the Explorers were once again in position to pull of a marquee victory. This time against VCU, consistently one of the top teams in the Atlantic-10. While VCU isn’t a top 25 team as it has been in years past, a win against the Rams usually ends up being a win against an NCAA tournament team.

La Salle had a halftime lead and had a chance to tie or win the game in the final minute, but the Explorers fell just short, losing to VCU, 80-74.

At this point in the season, the Explorers (7-9, 1-2 A-10) aren’t searching for moral victories. They are looking for wins.

“We think we can play with people, we’re not surprised we came close to VCU,” La Salle coach John Giannini said. “There’s no takeaway there whatsoever.”

The Explorers led by eight at halftime against VCU, but trailed by as many as 10 before the midpoint of the second half.

Senior forward B.J. Johnson returned to the lineup after missing the team’s past three games with an ankle injury. Johnson hadn’t had any type of live practice before suiting up against the Rams, only doing rehab and taking jump shots, Giannini said.

He played 16 minutes in the first half, scoring eight points, grabbing five rebounds and tallying four steals. However, he played just eight minutes in the second half,  finishing with 15 points before subbing out for good at the 6:04 mark.

Giannini said he blamed himself for the Explorers’ sluggish start to the second half, as he may have mismanaged Johnson's usage coming back from injury.

“(Johnson) was a huge part of us winning the first half, and wasn’t even his complete normal stuff there,” Giannini said. “But I could see, he dove for a rebound, gave great effort at the end of the second half, and I told my staff, he’s got nothing left…I asked him to do something that’s like impossible for anyone to do.”

“I thought the start of the second half was where the game changed dramatically,” he added.

Led by Pookie Powell, who finished with a game-high 24 points, La Salle climbed back into the game, giving itself a chance to tie the game or take the lead when Powell scored a layup with 44 seconds left and the Explorers forced a turnover on the other end.

Powell took the shot, taking a contested fadeaway jumper in the lane that hit off the front of the rim. The Rams grabbed the rebound hit their free throws to close things out, squandering another La Salle opportunity.

“We played great, we gave ourselves a chance to win the game,” Giannini said. “I thought Pookie is a great player, but we missed a wide open Jamir Moultrie late with a shot to win the game, and we took a tough one to tie it. … I kind of wish he had a chance to shoot that three to win the game.”

Giannini pointed a finger at his team’s defense down the stretch as the reason the Explorers lost Saturday’s game and others this season.

When La Salle closed the Rams’ lead to two with 3:27 left in the game, the Explorers gave up a layup to De’Riante Jenkins and two free throws to Jonathan Williams to fall behind by six with 1:44 left and force themselves to climb out of another hole.

“We still broke down,” Giannini said. “Teams like VCU are awfully good...We just can’t give up some of the baskets we gave up late and we had several players, a lot of players a part of that.”