Explorers rip off three straight

By Mike McDonald
Collegian Editor
January 23, 2008

Two weeks ago, the Explorers’ season was looking bleak. They had just lost a triple-overtime heartbreaker to the Richmond Spiders to open up Atlantic 10 play and were riding a five-game losing streak.

But a Jan. 12 trip to Olean, N.Y. seems to have turned everything around. La Salle defeated St. Bonaventure, 72-61, and entered the week at 5-9.

This week, the Explorers faced off against Penn and Richmond and looked to create a little momentum.

The Explorers entered their Jan. 15 showdown with the Penn Quakers having lost the previous six games in the series, as La Salle’s last win over Penn came in December 2000. But this night would be different.

The Explorers stumbled out of the gate in this one, but the Quakers weren’t much better. Combined, the teams missed 15 shots to open up the game. After that, though, Penn started to get it together offensively.

At halftime, the Quakers’ Tyler Bernardini led all scorers, with 13. Offensively, La Salle was making some mistakes with turnovers, but the real problem came in the shooting department, where the Explorers just couldn’t seem to be able to buy a bucket.

The Explorers shot only 21.4 percent from the field in the opening half, but they were able to keep themselves in the game by shooting 8-for-8 from the free throw line. Penn led by five at the half, 29-24.

“We really struggled offensively,” La Salle head coach John Giannini said. “We missed a ton of layups and we had some bad decisions.”

Whatever Giannini told the team at halftime, it worked. The Explorers emerged from the locker room looking like a completely different team. After struggling to put up 24 points in the entire first half, La Salle scored 17 points in the first seven minutes of the second half. This span included a key 11-0 run that put the Explorers in the lead, at 41-35. The Explorers’ defensive play forced Penn into a number of mistakes.

“Our press created a couple turnovers,” Giannini said. “There’s no question that forcing turnovers in that stretch was key.”

Over the game’s final 13 minutes, the teams battled back and forth, but La Salle never lost the lead. The Explorers never got out to a comfortable lead, but they were able to survive the game’s closely-contested closing minutes by having success working the ball inside and continuing to shoot well from the free throw line.

“Our guys played hard, and they wanted the game,” Penn head coach Glen Miller said. “I think we showed some improvement in certain areas, but in the second half I just think we were unable to keep them out of the lane, and we overreacted to some dribble penetration.”

When a Brian Grandieri layup closed the gap to one with 31 seconds remaining, sophomore Yves Mekongo Mbala took care of business at the free throw line, going 3-for-4 from the line in the game’s final 20 seconds to seal the win.

“I was just out there trying to make sure I used my best effort to help my team win,” Mekongo Mbala said. “I didn’t have one of my best games, but throughout the game I was telling myself I need to do something to help Rodney, Darnell and Coach G get a win here against Penn.”

Due in large part to Mekongo Mbala’s late contributions, the Explorers pulled it out, with a final score of 62-58.

Sophomore Rodney Green was the top scorer for the Explorers, with 17, including a 9-for-10 effort from the charity stripe. Sophomore Kimmani Barrett played a great game. He went 4-for-5 from the field and 7-for-8 from the line for 15 points to go along with a game-high nine rebounds.

Freshman Darryl Partin played an important five minutes during the second half, as he made a steal and went 2-for-2 from the field for a quick five points.

“I really want to compliment Darryl Partin,” Giannini said. “We thought we could use his defensive foot speed, and he really came through for us.”

On the night, the Explorers shot 83 percent from the line, while coming in to the game they had shot only 68 percent on the year.

“It was obviously a very hard-fought game on both sides,” Giannini said. “It was a hard-fought win that we really had to earn from an effort point-of-view. We played very hard, but I don’t think we played particularly well.”

Saturday’s game against the Richmond Spiders offered La Salle a chance at some revenge in a contest featured locally on Comcast SportsNet.

The game was a pretty close one, but the Explorers led almost all of the way through. Richmond led twice, but never by more than one. La Salle emerged victorious, with a final score of 76-67.

The Spiders outscored the Explorers in the paint, 42-32, but La Salle used the hot hand of senior Darnell Harris to grab the win. Harris led all scorers with 24 points, shooting 6-for-7 from three-point range. Green had another strong game, scoring 16 points. Green and freshman Jerrell Williams tied for the game-high with seven rebounds.

David Gonzalvez paced Richmond with 21 points.

With the win, the Explorers improved to 7-9 on the season and 2-1 in the A-10. Richmond fell to 9-8 and 2-2. Ever since that triple overtime loss to the Spiders two weeks ago, La Salle has seemed to be getting it going in the right direction.

“When we lost in triple overtime against Richmond, it hurt us,” Green said. “Now, we want to keep this win streak going.”

The Explorers will put their three-game winning streak on the line Wednesday night when the Charlotte 49ers come to town. Tip-off is scheduled for 7 p.m. at the Tom Gola Arena.

mcdonaldm2@lasalle.edu