PHILADELPHIA – The La Salle men’s basketball team took down #10 Richmond, 80-72, on Tuesday evening at Tom Gola Arena in the first round of the Atlantic 10 Tournament. With the win, #7 La Salle advances to face #2 Saint Louis in the A-10 quarterfinals on Friday night at Atlantic City’s Boardwalk Hall.
Tickets to Friday’s game can be purchased by visiting Ticketmaster.com.
La Salle improves to 21-11 on the season and 14-2 at Gola Arena.
“I’m obviously very pleased,” head coach Dr. John Giannini said. “We had a lot of people contribute. We played good defense and didn’t turn it over.”
Junior Ramon Galloway had 17 points and a team-leading seven rebounds and eight assists. Senior Earl Pettis had 15 points, freshman Jerrell Wright had 14 and senior Devon White added 13 to round out the Explorers’ players in double-figure scoring.
The Spiders’ Darien Brothers finished with 31 points, including 22 in the first half before the Explorers found an answer for him.
It was Brothers’ shot that kept the game close for the Spiders throughout much of the first half. The Explorers broke a 29-all tie with a 7-0 run capped by a Galloway three point play to go up 36-29 with 3:31 remaining before the break.
La Salle went into halftime with a 40-33 lead.
After the break, Richmond used a 6-0 run to cut the Explorers’ lead to just one at 40-39 with 17:34 on the clock.
At the half, the Explorers talked about adjustments to make on Brothers and Galloway stepped up to limit him.
“I just tried to stay in front of him,” said Galloway. “I had to keep moving my feet, make him drive. He hit a lot of three’s early and I thought that if I made him drive, it would make the shots tougher.”
White was fouled going up for a layup and made both free throws to put La Salle up 49-41 with 13:51 to go.
The Spiders kept the game close, with a fastbreak layup by getting Richmond again within one at 49-48 with 11:37 on the clock.
La Salle answered with seven quick points off a Mills trey, a Wright dunk and a Pettis layup to go ahead 56-48 with 10:33 to play.
The Explorers’ extended their lead to as many as 15 at the 3:58 mark of the second half after a 9-0 run.
The Explorers shot .500 from the field, while allowing Richmond to shoot .429.
Richmond was the winner of last year’s Atlantic 10 Tournament and had advanced to the Sweet Sixteen of the NCAA Tournament.
Friday evening’s contest against Saint Louis is slated to begin at 6:30 p.m. Complete A-10 Championship coverage can be found here.
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