Cold shooting, foul trouble, and a fifteen free throw discrepancy were too much to overcome as La Salle fell to St. Joe's 70-66 at a sold-out Palestra. Explorers' big men Jerrell Wright and Devon White were whistled for nine fouls while only playing a combined 23 minutes compared to Hawks frontcourt players Halil Kanecevic and CJ Aiken only being whistled for three fouls in 59 minutes. La Salle was forced to play four guards and inexperienced freshman center Steve Zack for extended minutes which changed the whole complexion of the game.
Despite all this, the gritty Explorers hung tough and actually had a chance to win the game. After a DJ Peterson steal and dunk by Earl Pettis trimmed the deficit to one point with eleven seconds left, the Hawks were given a disputed timeout in spite of what appeared to be a five second violation on the inbounds attempt. St. Joe's then got a second break as they appeared to commit a second five second violation only to be awarded another timeout. The third time was the charm as they inbounded the ball to CJ Aiken who was fouled with nine seconds left. Aiken drained both free throws giving the Hawks a three point lead. La Salle had a chance to tie the game but a rushed three pointer by Earl Pettis bounced off the rim into the hands of Langston Galloway who was fouled with two seconds left. He made one of two to put the game out of reach.
Earl Pettis led the Explorers with 17 points while Ramon Galloway (14) and Sam Mills (11) also scored in double figures. For St. Joe's, Kanecevic bulled his way to 18 points and 17 rebounds and Carl Jones was the only other double figure scorer with 13.
With the loss, La Salle falls to 17-7 overall and 6-3 in A10 play while St. Joe's improved to 15-9 overall and 5-4 in the A10.
http://www.goexplorers.com/news/2012/2/4/MBB_0204125807.aspx?path=mbball
http://www.sjuhawks.com/sports/m-baskbl/recaps/020412aaa.html
No comments:
Post a Comment