Game of the Night

La Salle Explorers 77, Florida Gulf Coast Eagles 86

The Explorers lost their fifth straight game on Thursday when they went on the road to face the Florida Gulf Coast Eagles. This was La Salle’s last game before opening up conference play this weekend. Despite good shooting from the field, La Salle had no answer for Florida Gulf Coast’s offense on Thursday afternoon. The Eagles shot 47% from the field to score 86 points including 44 in the first half. La Salle trailed by 14 at the break and had to play from behind throughout the second.

The Explorers got very good performances from Jordan Price and Cleon Roberts. The two went a combined 19 of 36 from the field for 55 points. They also pulled down a combined 13 rebounds. Unfortunately for the Explorers, the rest of the team went just 8 of 22 from the floor for 22 points. Meanwhile, the Eagles got balanced scoring and rebounding from a number of players. Julian DeBose led the way with 20 points, but Antravious Simmons and Marc-Eddy Norelia had good games as well. Simmons had 17 points and 10 rebounds while Norelia had 15 points nd 9 boards.

All in all, the Eagles were just too much for La Salle to handle, especially on the glass where they held a +10 margin. Looking ahead, the Explorers will open conference play at home on Sunday against Massachusetts. They’ll be hoping to snap a 5 game losing streak and get off to a good start in the Atlantic 10.