La Salle Explorers Come up Short to the Penn Quakers

Tonight, the La Salle Explorers hosted the Penn Quakers in a break from Atlantic 10 play.

In a standard Big Five scrap, the La Salle Explorers came up short losing 77-74 to the Penn Quakers. The 1-3-1 zone was able to neutralize the Explorers attack and they were unable to cope without Pookie Powell and with Demetrius Henry ailing due to sickness.

The Explorers looked to bounce back from their humiliating loss to VCU on Sunday where the starters were benched for most of the second half but they came out flat in this one. It would be tougher to have a first half then the La Salle Explorers had in Richmond but tonight’s came close. The early storyline was guard Pookie Powell sitting in street clothes as the game began.

When asked about Powell’s injury, coach John Giannini didn’t go into much detail saying, “Pookie will be evaluated tomorrow, he hurt his leg in practice.”

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With Powell on the bench, Cleon Roberts was inserted into the starting lineup for the La Salle Explorers as they struggled out of the gate. Thanks to questionable shot selection, the Explorer’s allowed the struggling Quakers to begin the game on a 5-0 run. During the half, the Quakers dominated the Explorers in every category from points to hustle.

With it being a big five matchup the La Salle Explorers knew that they’d have to be on their A-game early and they… weren’t. After a half of fouls by both teams and a barrage of three’s from the Quakers, the Explorers were down big in their own court. The first half ended 40 – 27 with the advantage in favor of the Quakers.

When you’re playing, you’re playing as a basketball player, you’re not playing like a freshman -AJ Brodeur

By the numbers, the Quakers didn’t actually shoot that well during the first half from three but it was the sheer amount that they took (17 to be exact) which allowed them to gain an early advantage. On the other hand, La Salle didn’t shoot well at all making only EIGHT field goals in the first half to the tune of a 30.8 shooting percentage. If not for VCU Sunday, this would be their worst half of the year.

When the second half began, the Explorers seemed to have woken up a bit as they stormed out the gate to an 8-1 run to draw within six but the Quakers would do just enough in the early going to keep their advantage. The half would get interesting as the Quaker’s hot shooting began to cool off while the Explorer’s began to heat up from the floor. The Explorers were able to shoot 53 percent from the field but freshman AJ Brodeur had a career game to keep Penn ahead. The freshman forward had 35 points in the game for almost half of Penn’s final scoring totals.

When asked about how it felt to get the first career Big Five win AJ said,

"“It feels great, it feels like more than just another win because it’s the Big five it’s such a historic league and being able to come out with a win my freshman year despite it being on the road. I’d like to get one in the Palestra but I have three more years.”"

The final two minutes were where things began to get tense. The Explorers went small to close out the game, bringing the score to within three. Then things got weird for the La Salle Explorers at Tom Gola Arena tonight.

Penn threw an outlet pass that BJ Johnson rose up like a wide receiver to intercept before giving it to freshman Isiah Deas who tried to go coast to coast. The issue is that being a freshman, Deas tried to do a little too much and ended up being blocked at the rim. Even though the possession didn’t end in points, enough was done to ignite life into the arena. On La Salle’s next possession BJ Johnson scored a putback to bring the house down.

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Sadly, the game came down to free throws at the end and La Salle’s comeback bid came up short. It was a valiant effort but the Explorers weren’t able to fully dig out of the hole that they put themselves into. Next up, the Explorers will travel to Saint Joe’s to resume Atlantic 10 play on Saturday in what is also a Big Five rivalry.

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