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La Salle wins fourth in a row, wire-to-wire victory over GW

01/15/2017, 9:15pm EST
By Will Slover

Jordan Price (above) had his best all-around effort of the season as La Salle won its fourth straight game, 79-69. (Photo: Mark Jordan/CoBL)

Will Slover (@WillSlover31)
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Coming into its contest with George Washington on Saturday, La Salle was riding a three-game win streak against conference opponents and playing its best basketball of the season.

The Explorers continued to do more of the same Saturday night as they posted a wire-to-wire, 79-69 victory over George Washington and extended their win streak to four.

Although the Explorers (10-5, 4-1 Atlantic 10) held the lead for the entirety of the contest, it was never by much until a 3-pointer by Pookie Powell and an and-one layup from Price on consecutive possessions pushed the lead to double digits for the first time and the Explorers used this spurt as part of a 19-3 run that gave them a lead as large as 21 with 6:29 remaining.

La Salle’s win over George Washington (9-9, 1-4 Atlantic 10) can be largely attributed to one of the best offensive performances of the season for the Explorers as they set new season-high marks in both field goal percentage, going 27-of-44 (.614) from the field, and in three-point field goal percentage as they shot 11-for-17 (.647) from beyond the arc.

“You’re always thrilled with an A-10 win. We were unbelievable offensively.” La Salle head coach John Giannini said. “When a guy like B.J. Johnson can probably have his most frustrating game of the year and you’re up by 20 with a couple of minutes left against a good team, some good things are going on.”

Johnson, La Salle’s leading scorer (18.9 ppg) and rebounder (6.4 rpg), was taken out of the game early on due to foul trouble; he struggled to find his way back into the mix in the late going as the redshirt junior would still be able to cash in for 14 points but didn’t make his way into the rebounding column.

Picking up Johnson’s slack was the senior duo of Price and Cleon Roberts.

The lone scholarship seniors on La Salle’s roster, the two 6-foot-5 guards caused problems for George Washington from the opening tip.

Price led La Salle with 23 points on 9-of-11 shooting and also finished with team-highs of seven rebounds and five assists in what may have been his best performance of the season.

“I’m so proud of Jordan because he’s becoming a great player and that’s not easy. That’s why there is so few of them,” Giannini said. “He’s doing everything out there right now.”

Roberts, who has been thriving in his new role as sixth man for La Salle, finished with 13 points on 5-of-6 shooting, including going 3-for-3 from beyond the arc. In addition to his stellar offensive effort, Roberts also notched four steals in the first half which helped La Salle build its early lead.

After his strong performance, Roberts has now made 24 of his 46 three-point attempts this season, good enough for a clip of .522, which would place him at fourth nationally if he had enough attempts.

For George Washington, the Colonials were led by freshman Jair Bolden, a Westtown School graduate, who finished with 16 points on 5-of-7 shooting.

La Salle’s 10th win of the season is a bit of a milestone for the Explorers, as they finished last season with just nine wins due to some personnel complications and injury.

Also of note for La Salle, is its four-game win streak in Atlantic 10 play that has the Explorers from a middle-of-the-pack team, to a team that is suddenly tied for second place in the Atlantic 10 and is trending upward following two decisive wins on the road against Rhode Island and on Saturday against GW.

“It’s always good to go on a four game winning streak. We’re really just taking it one game at a time, one day at a time,” Price said. “That’s really what we’ve been doing.”

Even though they are playing with the best of their conference right now, the Explorers know that there is always room for improvement, especially with Atlantic 10 perennial powers Davidson (9-7, 2-3 Atlantic 10) and VCU (14-4, 4-1 Atlantic 10) on the horizon.

“Guys are getting better, we’re beating some good teams, and we’re beating them by comfortable margins,” Giannini said. “If our defense can continue to get better and we can correct some isolated mistakes here and there, we can keep getting better.”


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