La Salle Explorers fall to URI behind 24 points from Jared Terrell

The La Salle Explorers welcomed URI to Tom Gola Arena with a chance to tie them for fourth place in the Atlantic 10 Conference.

The La Salle Explorers [14-12, 8-7 A10] couldn’t stop Jared Terrell as the Rhode Island Rams [18-9, 10-5 A10] rumbled to a 67-56 win. Terrell led all scorers with 24 points on an 11-16 shooting line. This win puts the Rams in sole possession of third place in the Atlantic 10 and in a good position to earn a coveted double-bye in the conference tournament. It knocks La Salle down to seventh place and they will have some work to do to close out the season.

Four Explorers reached double digits in this one as they were led by Pookie Powell with 14 points. The issues was that only four points were scored by the bench as URI locked down on La Salle’s replacements.

The game started with the La Salle Explorers drawing first blood but after that, they looked lost while URI going on an 8-1 run to nab an early lead. It was keyed by a mixture of bad decision making and missed layups. The layups, in particular, have been a chronic problem for the Explorers as they have left points on the floor on numerous occasions when they are playing opponents with size like URI.

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The Explorers were able to hang tough despite a poor shooting performance in the early stages of the first half thanks to being able to get to the line due to excessive fouling by URI. But as the half wore on, URI locked in and Jared Terrell picked up the slack. From the 7:27 mark in the first half, URI went on a 10-2 run in order to open a 10 point lead on the Explorers. Five of those 10 points were scored by Terrell who poured in 18 points in the half. This was thanks to and 8-12 shooting line where he only missed one shot in the paint.

After the game, Gianni had nothing but praise for Terrell saying,

"“Did ya look at him? You’ve got a body like that and shooting the ball from deep and being explosive off the dribble. We would’ve loved to stop him but he’s a big-time player.”"

The La Salle Explorers didn’t have another field goal from the 8:09 mark in the first half on as the offense went anemic to close out the half. They got URI into early foul trouble but decided not to drive in the lane to end the half. Amar Stukes was the most effective Explorer scoring the ball in the first half as he got nine points but five of those came from the foul line. Overall, the Explorers would need to stop being so careless with the ball if they wanted to get back into the as they committed nine turnovers in the half.

The second didn’t start well for the Explorers as they were called for six fouls in the first four minutes of the half after only being called for four in the entire first half. When asked about how it impacted their gameplan coach John Giannini said, “It always gets you back on your heels, clearly it’s something that worked against us.”

La Salle couldn’t keep up with the ball movement of the Rams who dominated the paint, scoring 36 of their points there. One example is in the clip below, an exchange between E.C. Matthews and Terrell:

Credit should be given to the Rams who dominated an Explorers team that does know how to shoot the rock but at some point, La Salle needs to beat top opposition. Their only win over a team in the top half of the Atlantic 10 this season was their win over these Rams in Rhode Island back in January. For a team with aspirations of winning the conference tournament, that won’t cut it.

Next: La Salle Explorers notch their first Big Five victory

When asked about the closing schedule, Giannini said, “They’re all big, I feel fine. We just need to play better. I think this game will make us better.” next up for the La Salle Explorers is a must win game against the UMass Minutemen on Sunday the 26th/

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