Explorers Struggle on Senior Day

La Salle had a chance to grab a share of the Big 5 championship for the first time in sixteen years. What they got was a thrashing from the Temple Owls and fell to the seventh seed in the Atlantic tournament next week.

La Salle players, coaches, and fans couldn’t have asked for anything more. A sellout crowd, and great atmosphere, a possible Big 5 championship, and a chance for a bye in the Atlantic 10 tournament next week. What they walked away with was a thorough pasting from perhaps the hottest team in the conference. Temple’s 85-66 win was La Salle’s second consecutive convincing defeat and left many fans wondering what has happened to the hot Explorer team that ripped off five consecutive wins, including three consecutive against three top 100 teams?

Once again poor defense would doom the Explorers as Temple got open looks almost at will against a La Salle defense which gave up an average 95.5 points per game last week. Temple scored from just about every spot on the floor. In the paint the Owls frontline of freshman Lavoy Allen and 7”0 center Sergio Olmos shot eight for fifteen from the floor and combined for 21 points. However, the big daggers were thrown by 5”8 senior point guard Chris Clark who shot a blistering eight for ten from the field including six for eight from distance garnering high scoring honors for the Owls with 22 points. While the Explorers held Temple’s big guns Dionte Christmas and Mark Tyndale below their normal scoring averages it was Clark that hurt the Explorers possession after possession with wide open shots from the perimeter. Head coach Fran Dunphy improved his overall record against La Salle to 15-5.

Seniors Darnell Harris and Sherman Diaz were both honored before the game and Harris did not disappoint scoring a game high 26 points. He needed just one three point basket to surpass UMass guard Monty Mack as the all-time Atlantic 10 three point shooting leader. He got that early and finished the game with four bombs and now trails only Villanova's Gary Buchanan as the all-time Big 5 three point shooter and could surpass that mark in La Salle's next game. Diaz finished the game with 4 points and 3 blocked shots. The Explorers have lost three straight and have given up an average of 92 points in those three games. The Explorers finish the regular season 14-16 and fall to the seventh seed and will take on Duquesne in the opening round of the Atlantic 10 tournament. Temples finishes the regular season 18-12 and also grabs the second seed in the tournament and will face the winner of the La Salle-Duquesne game which begins at 6:30pm Wednesday night.