City of Basketball Love

Max Buchdahl (@max_buchdahl)
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It’s been less than two weeks since La Salle suffered a troubling loss on its home floor in an exhibition game against Philadelphia University.

After that loss, the Explorers faced two tough home matchups against Towson and then Rider. Wins in both games have made the exhibition loss to the Division-II school feel farther away.

La Salle only had seven scholarship players available in the Towson win and again for Tuesday night’s matchup against Rider. Still, even short-handed, the Explorers were able to pick up a comfortable home victory, 73-60, over the Broncs.

Jordan Price led the way in scoring for the Explorers once again, establishing his clear role as offensive leader of this team. After a 27-point performance in the team’s season-opener, Price put up 28 against the Broncs.

Johnnie Shuler picked right up where he left off against Towson, a game in which he scored a career-high 15 points and hit the game-winning bucket. Shuler scored 10 points in the first half and finished the game with 14.

Although they finished with a double-digit victory, it wasn’t an easy start for La Salle. The team held a slim lead, 22-21, at the under-8 timeout, but afterward, John Giannini’s squad never looked back.

The Explorers used a 17-6 run over the final seven minutes to take a 39-27 lead into halftime, and only increased their lead once the teams returned from break, eventually taking a commanding 52-31 lead.

“We really wanted to get a big lead,” Giannini said, knowing he had a thin bench.

Rider never got within 11 points of La Salle in the second half. The Explorers began slowing things down offensively, taking time off the clock and preventing any possibility of a Broncs comeback.

One of the stories of La Salle’s narrow win over Towson was its foul trouble. The Explorers committed a total of 24 personal fouls in that game, and both Rohan Brown and Amar Stukes fouled out.

La Salle saw a 180-degree turn in tonight’s game, however, as no individual Explorer committed more than two fouls, and the team finished with a total of just 10.

The Explorers were again without Tony Washington and Karl Harris, who were both out with concussions. It’s clear that La Salle is missing Washington’s size, as Rider outrebounded the Explorers, 30-27.

Despite that loss in the stat column, Giannini is still willing to sacrifice rebounds if it means success in other areas of the game.

“Almost every statistic goes up when you get smaller, except for rebounding,” Giannini said. “...When you’re smaller, you do worse in rebounding. But your shooting percentage goes up, you make more threes, you force more turnovers, and you pass the ball better.”

That rang true tonight for La Salle, as the team topped Rider in shooting percentage, 3-point percentage, turnovers, and assists.