Penn tops La Salle in classic, then Bonnies beat Explorers

By Mike McDonald
Collegian Editor
January 24, 2007

This past week was a tough one for the Explorers as they dropped games against Penn and St. Bonaventure.

On Thursday night, the Explor-ers engaged in a Big 5 battle with 9-6 Penn at the Tom Gola Arena. The game was a classic, featuring 15 lead changes in the last 10:03 of the second half, and this one went down to the wire.

La Salle led throughout most of the first half, and they went to the break with a 49-41 lead. The Explorers shot a scorching 78 percent from three in the opening half. Junior Darnell Harris led the way, scoring 20 points in the half.

“His first half got us off to a great start,” La Salle head coach John Giannini said.

The teams went back and forth, trading punch for punch as the game went on. In fact, from the 10:03 mark until the 0:14 mark, neither team led by more than three at any point.

With 1:04 left in the game and the Explorers up 87-86, Penn’s Brian Grandieri made a shot and was fouled by freshman Rodney Green. He missed the free throw, but Mark Zoller secured the rebound for Penn, and freshman Yves Mekongo Mbala fouled him. The foul was Mekongo Mbala’s fifth, and Zoller went to the free throw line.

Zoller made both free throws to put Penn up by three, and La Salle used a timeout. The Explorers brought the ball down, and they worked it inside to freshman Kimmani Barrett. Barrett tried to kick the ball out to senior Mike St. John, but the pass was errant and Zoller grabbed it for Penn.

At the other end, Ibby Jaaber hit a jump shot with 14 seconds left to make the score 92-87 and just about ice it. Green made a lay-up for La Salle with eight seconds left on the clock, but then Grandieri made one out of two from the free throw line for Penn to make it a four point game.

Sophomore Paul Johnson made a three-pointer with one second left to make it 93-92, and this was the final score. It was an action-packed shootout, but the Quakers made the shots they needed to win the game.

“They’re the epitome of playing the right way, and we’re the epitome of trying hard and trying to figure it out,” Giannini said. “We need to become a team that values every possession.”

For the Explorers, junior Darnell Harris led the way with a fantastic shooting night. He scored 32 points and went 8-for-14 from three-point range.

“I just want to do things to win. Whatever it takes to win, that’s what I want to do,” Harris said.

Green scored 22, and Johnson had 17 points to go along with six rebounds. St. John grabbed nine boards for La Salle.

“It means a lot to play in Big 5 games like this,” Green said.

Penn’s one-two punch of Ibby Jaaber and Mark Zoller was on fire in this game. Jaaber scored 27, and Zoller had 28 points and 10 rebounds.

“Zoller and Ibby are just shockingly good,” Giannini said.

“I like playing at this pace,” Jaaber said. “I’m somewhat used to it.”

With the loss, the Explorers fell to 0-2 in the Big 5, while Penn improved to 1-1.

The Explorers were back in action on Sunday when they traveled to Olean, N.Y. to take on woeful St. Bonaventure. The Bonnies entered the game at 4-13, and they had lost 11 of their last 12 games.

La Salle came out very flat in this one, and they got behind early. The Bonnies led by as much as 12 in the first half.

But the Explorers seemed to come alive towards the end of the half. They trailed by 11 with 5:15 left before halftime, with the score 35-24.

It was at this point that La Salle took over the game. The Explorers went on a 21-0 run that went two minutes into the second half. They led St. Bonaventure, 45-35, with 17:54 left to play.

Then things just started to fall apart. St. Bonaventure began to battle back, and the Bonnies recaptured the lead with 12:38 left in the game. They never looked back and never surrendered the lead.

St. Bonaventure defeated the Explorers, 87-73. Play was delayed briefly during the second half due to a problem with the lights at the Reilly Center.

The Bonnies shot 69.2 percent from the field in the second half.

“We’re a struggling team, and we’re struggling defensively in a way that’s hard to understand,” Giannini told the Philadelphia Daily News.

The Bonnies were led by Paul Williams, who scored 20 points and grabbed 10 rebounds. Michael Lee added 19 points.

For the Explorers, Darnell Harris had 23 points. He is now just 22 points shy of becoming the 45th Explorer to reach the 1,000 point mark for his career. Yves Mekongo Mbala was one point short of a double-double.

The Explorers now stand at 8-11, and they are 1-4 in the Atlantic 10. All the rest of their games will be A-10 contests. They will be back in action on Wednesday when the Richmond Spiders come to the Tom Gola Arena.

mcdonaldm2@lasalle.edu