City of Basketball Love

Brendan Flatley (@bflats7)
--

Despite a late push from the Mountain Hawks, La Salle was able to hold on and string together their first pair of wins in a row on the young season, defeating Lehigh, 89-81.

At First…

After Lehigh jumped out to an early lead in the first six minutes of the contest, La Salle quickly found its footing, as the the two teams went back and forth with big buckets, exchanging the lead five times over the next nine minutes. Explorers Jordan Price and B.J. Johnson led the way offensively towards the end of the first half scoring a consecutive 14 points between the two of them over a span of three minutes. La Salle carried a 42-37 lead into the half with Johnson and Price the only scorers in double-digits at 13 and 12, respectively.

Turning Point…

Whatever La Salle coach John Giannini told his players in the locker room worked, and worked immediately. La Salle came out of the locker room and began a 16-7 run in the first five and a half minutes including a huge dunk and 3-pointer from Cleon Roberts. The Roberts dunk put the lead at six, and turned all the momentum in La Salle’s favor as they went on a 12-2 run directly after to make the score 58-42 .Not only did they begin to pour on the points immediately following the break, they also forced four turnovers, added three steals, and a block in the first eight minutes.

Standout Stars…

B.J. Johnson had a tremendous night shooting the ball and on the boards. Johnson scored 22, shooting 8-14 from the floor including 3-7 from beyond the arc while adding nine boards. Johnson has only not reached the double digit threshold once in his four games, with all three that he has have been over 20.

Cleon Roberts came out of the locker room for the second half and created the spark that proved to be too much to handle for Lehigh. Despite going into the half with only four points, he came out with a great drive and dunk and a pair of threes to push his point total to 12 and swing the momentum.

Noteworthy Numbers…

57.1: Even though Lehigh was able to shoot an impressive 57.1% from the floor, which was better than La Salle’s 52.5%, they were unable to secure the road win.

7: La Salle tallied 7 steals on the night, with 5 in the second half, to match their high on the season.

Up Next…
La Salle (3-2) vs. Bucknell (5-2) -- Dec. 3, 2 PM