At Palestra, it's SJU by 22

By Mike McDonald
Collegian Editor
February 14, 2007

A combination of poor La Salle defense and great Saint Joseph’s shooting made the Explorers’ only 2006-07 visit to the Palestra a lackluster game and a bad memory.

Darrin Govens shoots a three-pointer in front of the La Salle student section saturday.

Saturday afternoon, in front of a packed house at the historic Palestra, the Hawks came out with fire and intensity and pretty much blew the Explorers out of the building. The Hawks got off to a hot start, quieting the La Salle half of the crowd very quickly. A Rodney Green dunk with 17:56 left in the opening half was just about the only thing Explorer fans had to cheer about.

In the Hawk-dominated first half, nothing seemed to go right for La Salle. Six minutes into the action, St. Joe’s led 9-8. But over the next 11 minutes and 19 seconds, the Hawks ripped off a 24-6 run to take over the game. At the break, the score was Saint Joseph’s 37, La Salle 19.

“I just have a lot of work to do,” La Salle coach John Giannini said. “This game proves it.”

The first half was a statistical nightmare for the Explorers in a number of categories. The Hawks shot 53.8 percent from the field, while La Salle was held to just 29.6 percent shooting. In addition, the Explorers did not connect on any of their seven three-point attempts. Perhaps most notably, though, the Explorers were dominated on the glass. Saint Joseph’s grabbed 22 rebounds to La Salle’s 12. Rebounding is the one thing that the Explorers have been able to do successfully all season long on a night-in, night-out basis. The Hawks were able to control the glass and take that part of La Salle’s game away.

Junior Darnell Harris did not score until the second half, and the three-pointer he connected on with 18:31 left in the game was his final shot of the day. This was also the only three-point basket that La Salle was able to make in the entire game. Harris’ lack of productivity in the game led to speculation that his ankle might still be hurting him.

“He just was not effective defensively at all,” Giannini said. “I can’t believe he’s 100 percent.”

Nice efforts by freshmen Brian Grimes and Kimmani Barrett helped the Explorers pick up the pace somewhat in the second half, but the damage had already been done. The Explorers were more successful offensively in the second half, but on defense they allowed the Hawks to shoot six of 10 from three-point range. The final score was Saint Joseph’s 72, La Salle 50.

“I thought in the second half we treaded water instead of trying to maximize the opportunity to improve,” Saint Joseph’s coach Phil Martelli said. “This was an opportunity for us.”

This win was a big one for the Hawks, who were coming off an extremely ugly loss in the Holy War against Villanova. According to Martelli, there was a noticeable difference in his team’s mindset.

“I thought they were anxious to get here,” Martelli said. “Prior to the game there was more talk about playing with an attitude, playing with a chip on their shoulder.”

St. Joe’s spread the scoring around all afternoon, as four players scored at least 13 points in the game. Leading the way was Pat Calathes, whose 16 points, eight rebounds and five assists were integral in the Hawks’ success.

“When we move the ball around well, then [Calathes] has a chance on a couple dribble drives like he had in the first half today,” Martelli said.

La Salle had only one player score in double figures as Kimmani Barrett finished with 11 points. Barrett has started to receive some attention around the conference, and Sunday he was named Atlantic 10 Rookie of the Week. Freshmen scored 64 percent of the points in the game for the Explorers.

“What we tried to do is bring in guys that can play right away,” Giannini said. “We’re just starting. This is the first year of building, and our players need to make significant improvement. We have a lot of work to do.”

The coaching staffs of both teams wore sneakers Saturday to show their support for Coaches vs. Cancer.

Saint Joseph’s now sits at 6-4 in the A-10, good for a share of fourth place in the conference. This puts them in a good position heading down the stretch toward the Atlantic 10 Tournament. The Hawks still have six more regular-season games before the tournament.

“We’re in the fray here,” Martelli said. “We can still talk about getting to the top of the league.”

The Explorers find themselves in a much different position. With only five games left to play in the regular season, the team will have to pick up two games on St. Bonaventure to overtake them and grab that 12th and final spot in the tournament. Still left on the Explorers’ schedule are Temple, Saint Louis, George Washington, Massachusetts and Xavier.

Temple comes to Tom Gola Arena Wednesday night for a rematch from a week and a half ago, a game in which the Owls dominated the Explorers. This will most definitely be a crucial game for La Salle.

mcdonaldm2@lasalle.edu