PHILADELPHIA, PA. 11/23/2015 – The La Salle Explorers won their third straight game behind a game-high 33 points from guard Jordan Price defeating the Leopards of Lafayette 83 – 75 at the Tom Gola Arena. Price came into the game ranked second in the Atlantic 10 and sixth nationally in points per game. He now averages 29 per game with tonight’s effort. Coach Dr. John Giannini knows Price is a talented scorer.
“The scoring thing, someone asked if he was looking to do that in the second half,” said Giannini. “He was looking to do that at the hospital after being born in terms of looking to score. He’s always been like that offensively.”
Price finished the game shooting 11 of 14, 6 of 8 from beyond the arc, and 5 for 7 from the free throw line, and was one point shy of his career-best. The redshirt junior guard made 10 of his first 11 shots, and saw that as part of a team effort.
“In practice we work on finding each other,” said Price. “I give credit to my teammates. They found me when I was open. I had to make the shots to give them assists.”
Amar Stukes dished out a team-high 5 assists for the Explorers.
La Salle held a 44 – 41 lead at halftime. The Explorers opened the second half with a 19 – 7 run in the first seven minutes to open a 63 – 48 lead. Price scored 10 points in that span and assisted on two baskets by forward Tony Washington, playing in his first game after recovering from a concussion. He finished the game with 14 points and pulled down 9 rebounds. However, Price was more impressed with the Explorers defense that was a major part of the run.
“Our main focus was to get stops,” Price said. “We came out and they missed their first three shots, and we got steals and that leads to layups and open threes.”
“We were not executing offensively.” said Lafayette Coach Fran O’Hanlon. “We knew they were going to score. When they went to the zone we did not attack with confidence the way we needed to. We needed to do a better job against it.”
Forward Matt Klinewski paced the Leopards with 23 points. Guard Nick Linder passed for a game-best 8 assists.
La Salle out-rebounded Lafayette by a 43 – 25 margin. The Explorers had 17 offensive rebounds. Forward Rohan Brown gathered a game-best 11 rebounds, 6 off the offensive glass.
“It had a really big impact,” Giannini said. “We really challenged our big guys, and they came through. Our big guys really responded.”
The Explorers have a quick turnaround as the travel to West Philadelphia to open the Big Five portion of the schedule playing Penn on Wednesday.
Written By: Glenn Papazian
Contact: Glenn@PhillyCollegeSports.com
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