Explorers hot shooting downs Hawks

PHILADELPHIA - La Salle's backcourt of Tyreek Duren and Ramon Galloway combined for 45 points to lead the Explorers to a 76-64 win over Saint Joseph's (14-10; 5-6 A-10; 2-2 Big 5) in an Atlantic 10 and Big 5 matchup in front of a soldout crowd at The Palestra. The win clinches at least a share of the Big 5 title for La Salle (18-6; 8-3 A-10; 3-0 Big 5).

Halil Kanacevic shot 6-for-8 from the field led Saint Joseph's with 16 points while Ronald Roberts had his 12th double-double of the season with 13 points and 10 rebounds. Langston Galloway added 12 points and a season-high five steals.

Duren had 29 points on 9-for-12 shooting while Galloway had 16 points and 12 assists for La Salle.

La Salle shot 72.7 percent form the field in the second half to expand on a 29-24 halftime lead and the Hawks could only come within six points early in the half, despite connecting on 63.0 percent (17-for-27) of their field goal attempts.

La Salle, which went 10-for-16 from three-point range in the game, took a 45-34 lead on a three by Duren with 13:13 to play. The Hawks cut it to 48-41 on a three by Kanacevic, but La Salle came back and ran off five straight points to go up 53-41, for its biggest lead of the game. SJU's Galloway picked up a steal and converted the three-pointer to pull SJU within 53-44, but the Explorers would maintain close to a double-digit lead the rest of the way.

Saint Joseph's made one more run and pulled with 63-56 on a three-point play by Daryus Quarles at 3:31, but Ramon Galloway notched five straight points to push the Explorers' lead back up to 68-56.

"The offensive efficiency was a credit to them but it's in the numbers and it's really a nice way of playing basketball. Again the three-point line is not something that we've given up like that all year long. Our rotations in the second half were not very good," said SJU coach Phil Martelli.

"One of our points of emphasis for this game was man for man. Basically we had to say, can you win your matchup. And across the board, if you look at possessions, we didn't win enough of those matchups. The better team won. They played better and the better team won for today."

In the first half, the Explorers broke open a tight first half with a late 7-0 run to take a 24-18 lead. They went 5-for-8 from three-point range in the half, while the Hawks were just 2-for-8 from beyond the arc.

Saint Joseph's gets a week off before returning to action hosting George Washington on Saturday, February 23.