City of Basketball Love

Zach Drapkin (@ZachDrapkin)
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Playing against the top-ranked Villanova Wildcats, La Salle needed someone to step up. On Tuesday night, Pookie Powell was the man for the job.

Although the Explorers ultimately were not able pull out the win, falling 89-79, they gave their Big 5 rivals a run for their money at the Palestra, keeping the deficit within single digits for 28 minutes and sticking with the Wildcats for the full 40.

That was in large part thanks to Powell.

Every time the Wildcats gained slight momentum and stretched their lead to more than a possession or two, the 6-foot-tall redshirt sophomore guard answered right back with a clutch score to bring La Salle back within reach.

Jay Wright’s defense just couldn’t stop him.

“I was just trying to go out there and help my team win,” Powell said after the game. “Coach [John Giannini] said he wanted me to be aggressive before the game, he wanted me to just get to the basket and look for my shot and don’t be too passive, so that’s what I tried to do.”

Powell fired off for a career-high 27 points, 20 of which came in the second half, on 10-17 shooting from the field and 3-7 shooting from 3-point range.

The Memphis transfer, in his first year of eligibility with La Salle after sitting out last season, capped off the first half with an acrobatic finish at the buzzer to cut the deficit to four at 40-36, and certainly carried that momentum through the break.

When Villanova took its first double-digit lead with 12 minutes remaining, the score 53-42, Powell knocked down a jumper to stop the bleeding. Two minutes later, he cut another 11-point advantage down to nine with another jumper.

“When Pookie Powell got it going, we couldn’t stop him one-on-one,” Wright said. “We had to choose to try to guard him one-on-one and it worked out, but almost didn’t.”

Powell was anything but passive when it counted.

With La Salle down by a game-high 13 points and six minutes to go, Powell and Johnnie Shuler splashed home back-to-back three-pointers to bring Villanova’s edge down to seven.

Each time the Wildcats, led by Jalen Brunson’s career-high 26 points and Josh Hart’s 21, came down the floor and scored on the Explorers, Powell trudged right back on offense and matched his opponents’ feats on the other end.

The Explorers fought until the very end, Powell scoring the team’s final six points, but Villanova eventually secured the ‘W.’ When it was all said and done, La Salle had put in a valiant and proud losing effort, and Powell had just one turnover.

“His defense and one turnover impressed me more than the scoring,” Giannini said. “People get way too caught up in scoring but coaches and players and people who evaluate these guys for the next level, they look at passing, they look at defense, they look at rebounding, they don’t just look at how many points you score.”

It was all there Tuesday night for Powell, who logged 31 minutes coming off the bench for La Salle. He racked up two rebounds, one on the offensive glass, dished out an assist, and kept his composure in going 4-4 from the free throw line.

Powell went stride for stride with some of the nation’s top guards and turned in an incredibly impressive performance in front of 7,120 at the Palestra, and he’s just a sophomore.

Giannini must be feeling pretty giddy at the prospect of having Powell perform like that over the course of the next three seasons for La Salle basketball.

“Pookie’s awfully fast and he can shoot and he doesn’t turn it over,” Giannini said. “If you just praise guys who score, you’re going to have five guys running around trying to shoot every time.

“[But] even though he scored, I’m not mad at him. He did great.”