City of Basketball Love

Graham Foley (@Graham_foley3)
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La Salle’s season came down to needing a defensive stop and a bucket in the final minute of Wednesday night’s game against UMass in the first round of the Atlantic-10 Tournament.

The Explorers got the stop. They missed two chances at the bucket.

After an Amar Stukes bank shot pulled the Explorers within one with 44 seconds left, a B.J. Johnson block forced a Minuteman shot clock violation.

Out of the ensuing time out, La Salle gave the ball to redshirt-junior Pookie Powell who drove to the basket but couldn’t get the roll on a contested layup. The Explorers were forced to foul with 4.5 seconds left.

La Salle had one more chance, down two after a Minutemen missed free throw, but a deep three-point shot from Powell took bounced in and out of the net before falling to the ground. The Explorers’ tournament came to an abrupt end with a 69-67 loss.

It was a heartbreaking end for a La Salle team featuring four seniors that had showed potential at times, like in a 75-71 2OT win at Ivy-League champion Penn on Nov. 13.

But on the other side of that same coin, the Explorers often couldn’t put the pieces together, like in their 95-93 OT loss to A-10 champion Rhode Island on Feb. 20, a game that slipped through their fingertips.

The Explorers finished the regular season with with a 7-11 record in the A-10 and 13-8 overall. Wednesday’s loss marked the third-straight year that they lost their opening game of the conference tournament.

“This was an emotional loss,” head coach John Giannini said. “It was unfortunately typical of our season. We just couldn’t get over the hump, especially in close game. We’ve put ourselves in position to win games and we just fell short.”

As the buzzer sounded, Powell sat in the center of the court and refused to be immediately helped up by his teammates. He finished with 18 points, shooting 5-of-15 from the field but a notable 0-for-5 from three-point range.

But there was no doubt for La Salle that with less than five seconds left, Powell was the one who would have the last shot.

“We really just wanted to get the ball to Pook,” Stukes said. “He’s the fastest player on our team. We know he can get up the court in four seconds. He’s accustomed to making clutch shots, so we got the ball to the right person. Just didn’t go in.”

The missed missed three was a fitting way to end a game in which La Salle shot just 1-for-16 from beyond the arc. As a whole, the Explorers shot just 37 percent from the field, 21-of-57, and had 34 points in the paint.

La Salle’s cold day from the field was a stark contrast to its most recent contests. The Explorers hit 10 three-point shots in their regular season finale, a 78-70 loss at Saint Joseph’s on March 3, and had hit more than 45 percent of field goals in three of their last four games.

Wednesday night was the first time La Salle made less than four threes or shot less than 20 percent from beyond the arc since its 57-46 loss at Miami on Nov. 22 in which the Explorers were 0-for-15 from three-point range.

Despite this, a made 3-pointer at the end would have won the game.

“We were a shot away and one for 16 on threes is historically low, probably our lowest of the season,” Giannini said. “Those shots Pookie had were great. So yeah, it’s disappointing.”

Two seniors led the way for La Salle in their final collegiate games.

Tony Washington finished as the Explorers’ top scorer in the game with 20 points, tying a career high. He shot 8-of-12 from the field, 4-of-6 from the foul line. He added a team-high 12 rebounds, five of which were offensive.

“I was trying hard to get the offensive rebound an whatnot, but traffic got inside for me and I just had to do my part and tried to score as much as I can, or create for other players on the team,” Washington said.

Johnson, the redshirt-senior who transferred from Syracuse after his sophomore season, finished the game with 18 points and had La Salle’s only three-point shot. Johnson was a perfect 5-of-5 at the line, 6-of-14 from the field, and grabbed four rebounds.

Johnson, who came to Syracuse in 2013, had a more sudden end to his long collegiate career than he may have anticipated.

“It doesn’t even feel like it’s over, for real,” Johnson said. “I guess, at some point, it’ll really hit me, but as of right now, it doesn’t feel real.”

Stukes struggled in his final game in a La Salle uniform. The senior guard who also attended La Salle college high school finished with just four points, shooting 2-for-7 in 39 total minutes.

“Just, we didn’t hit shots today honestly,” Stukes said. “That’s pretty much what it was. We’ve already played against UMass. I mean, we were prepared. We just didn’t make the shots.”

For UMass, it was also a senior that contributed the most.

C.J. Anderson led all scorers with 21 points, shooting 6-of-10 from the field and 4-of-7 from three-point range. His back-to-back jumper and three-point shot capped a 10-0 second-half run for the Minutemen that put them up 52-45 with 9:25 left.

Sophomore Luwane Pipkins added 15 points by shooting 5-of-12 from the field and 4-of-7 from three in a 26 minute effort shortened by foul trouble. And junior Malik Hines finished right behind with 14 points on a 4-of-8 shooting night from the field. He fouled out with 1:19 remaining.

The Minutemen also struggled shooting as a team, collectively shooting just 21-of-51 from the field and 10-of-30 in the first half, but made up for it by connecting on 10 threes in 23 tries.

But the Explorers were unable to take advantage and will go into the offseason knowing that they were one shot away from extending their season at least one more day.

“UMass deserves a lot of credit,” Giannini said. “I thought their overall defense was good and I though they really hurt us on some offensive rebounds late.”

“But yeah,” he added. “One of those balls goes in and we win.”