DAVIDSON, N.C. – In March, hope springs eternal.
Baseball opening day quickly approaches. The weather gets
warmer. Fans of teams – those who make their conference tournaments, at least –
can quickly write off whatever their team’s regular-season results were and
again believe that they could be part of the One Shining Moment montage.
That hope even springs for La Salle.
Though the Explorers have had a seemingly never-ending
string of injuries to key players and a season that hasn’t gone as anyone
hoped, Darris Nichols’ team still represents its coach. It refuses to quit.
La Salle saw its latest reason for hope – even if the
faintest of glimmers – Sunday afternoon. The Explorers broke out to a 15-5 lead
at Davidson, and though the ending felt familiar, Nichols got a glimpse of what
he thought he might get from his unit in his first season in North Philadelphia.
On the obvious side, Davidson logged three double-digit
scorers and knocked off La Salle, 71-64, before an announced crowd of 3,891.
But…
“We continued to fight. The energy is great,” Nichols said
after the game. “We’ve played hard all year. Sometimes, playing hard just isn’t
enough.”
“I thought we made a lot of scouting report errors, (like)
letting (guard Josh) Scovens get to his right hand, not getting out to shooters
a few times, and not fouling when we’re supposed to foul. It’s just part of the
game. You’ve got to be able to play hard and execute the gameplan.”
The Explorers executed the gameplan quite well in the first
two segments. La Salle (8-21, 4-12 Atlantic 10) was guided on the aforementioned 15-5
run by two big triples from point guard Truth Harris and another from freshman
wing Ashton Walker. Harris logged eight of the Explorers’ first 11 points. From
there, the Wildcats had the answers.
Davidson (18-11, 9-7) used a 15-3 burst to take a 20-18 lead
on a Devin Brown three with 6:53 remaining in the first half. The Wildcats
surrendered the lead back to the Explorers on two Harris free throws and again
on a Nas Hart jumper, but Brown sank another three to give the hosts an
advantage they would never surrender. Rob Dockery hit two free throws to again
cut it to one, but a 5-0 microburst from Davidson grew the lead back to six. A JQ
Roberts dunk near the first-half horn sent the Wildcats to the locker room
ahead, 33-27.
La Salle scored six of the first seven points of the second
half to draw back within one. Just as the Explorers had a chance to again seize
the lead, the Explorers had an empty trip that Nick Coval countered with a
turnaround jumper that started a 10-1 Davidson run to put the Wildcats ahead by
11 at 50-39 at the 11:02 mark. Davidson would stretch the lead as far as 13 on
multiple occasions, only for La Salle to chop that lead in half. The home lead hovered near that span for most
of the second 10 minutes.
Just when the game seemed over after two Coval free throws,
though, the still-fighting Explorers had one more counter. Guard Eric Acker
hoisted a three near the Explorer bench that splashed through the net as the
Wildcats fouled him in the act of shooting. Acker connected on the free throw
to make it 68-64 with 27 seconds remaining. La Salle could draw no closer,
however, and Davidson closed it out at the free throw line.
“We were in the bonus and we didn’t put enough pressure on
the rim to draw fouls,” Nichols said of the second half. “We had to settle for
jump shots because they’re really good at protecting the paint. They’re one of
the best teams in our league and the country in field goal percentage defense.
Obviously, we’re not the best three-point shooting team, so that’s what we’ve
got to do.”
La Salle also still showed one of the hallmarks of Nichols’
preferred style, getting to the free throw line 27 times in the contest. Davidson
has allowed more than 27 free throw attempts in just four games this season.
The Explorers hit 23 of those shots (85.2 percent), allowing them to remain in
the game until the final horn.
“It is (a positive). Over the years, if we’ve gotten to the
free throw line 25-plus times, we’ve usually won the game,” Nichols said. “(There
were) just some defensive breakdowns throughout the game that got them on the
run. They got the threes off and I think they went up 11, and we had to call
timeout. Those momentum-changing threes really hurt you.”
Davidson hit 8-of-20 (40 percent) from three, with four of
them coming from guard Roberts Blums. Blums hit 4-of-8 from distance in 28
minutes off the bench, resulting in a plus-17 rating for the day.
“We switched up defenses a lot,” Nichols said. “I thought
that a few times we were rotating to the guys we weren’t supposed to rotate to
and leaving the guys open that we were supposed to make bounce. This is
executing the different defenses and all the changing defenses that we’ve had
to play this year. You’ve got to be able to execute in-game.”
Blums led Davidson with 17 on 6-of-15 shooting. Scovens
tallied 16 on a 7-of-12 effort, while Brown notched 13 on 4-for-7 from the
deck. The Wildcats shot 47.2 percent (25-for-53) from the floor to go with the
40 percent from distance. Davidson hit 13-of-21 (61.9 percent) from the line.
Harris paced La Salle with 17 from the floor before fouling
out, hitting 5-of-10 from the field and 4-of-4 from the line. Dockery booked 15
on 5-for-11 from the field and 5-for-6 from the line. La Salle shot 34.7
percent (18-for-53) from the field and 33.3 percent (5-for-15) from beyond the
arc to pair with their stellar performance from the line.
Nichols also got good minutes from freshman forward Nas
Hart, who knocked down 3-of-7 from the field and 3-of-4 from the line to finish
with nine points and six boards.
“He’s been getting better and better,” Nichols said. “He’s a
guy that’s come into practice and had great energy, been super athletic, and
has changed some things around the rim. At the five, he’s been the
most consistent. We need the other fives to step up.”
Nichols still sees potential in the Explorers, even with the
challenges they have faced.
“Our guys have still got great energy,” Nichols said. “We
still have a lot to play for.”
La Salle returns to Glaser Arena in Philadelphia to square
off with Fordham on Senior Night Wednesday. Tip time is set for 6:30 (Eastern),
with ESPN+ handling the coverage. Davidson hosts Saint Joseph’s for its Senior
Night Wednesday, as well. Tip time from Belk Arena is set for 7:00. ESPN+ will
also stream that contest.
DAVIDSON 71, LA SALLE 64
LA SALLE (8-21, 4-12 A10)
Hart 3-7 3-4 9, Walker 1-6 2-2 5, T. Harris 5-10 4-4 17,
Johnson 2-8 4-4 8, Dockery 5-11 5-6 15, J. Harris 0-5 2-4 2, Lipacis 0-0 0-0 0,
Daniel 1-1 0-0 2, Acker 1-3 3-3 6, Strand 0-2 0-0 0. Totals 18-53 23-27 64.
DAVIDSON (18-11, 9-7)
Platteeuw 1-2 0-0 2, Scovens 7-12 2-6 16, Friedrichsen 1-4
0-0 3, D. Brown 4-7 3-4 13, S. Brown 0-1 0-0 0, Logan 1-3 0-0 2, Roberts 1-2
1-2 3, Blums 6-15 1-3 17, Adam 2-3 2-2 7, Coval 2-4 4-4 8, Joses 0-0 0-0 0.
Totals 25-53 13-21 71.
Halftime: Davidson 33-27. 3-Point
goals: Davidson 8-20 (Platteeuw 0-1, Scovens 0-1, Friedrichsten 1-3,
D. Brown 2-2, S. Brown 0-1, Blums 4-8, Adam 1-2, Coval 0-2), La Salle 5-15
(Walker 1-3, T. Harris 3-5, Johnson 0-2, Acker 1-3, Strand 0-2). Fouled out: T.
Harris (LAS). Rebounds: Davidson 37 (Logan/Adam 6), La
Salle 31 (Hart/Walker/Johnson 6). Total fouls: La Salle 19, Davidson
19. Technicals: NA.
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