La Salle was unable to hold onto their halftime lead as Ryan Daly carried the Hawks to victory.
When it comes to tournament play, you need your top scorers to step up to the plate, and Saint Joseph’s got just that. Ryan Daly showed up to play – as he always seems to do – finishing the contest with 23 points and playing the entire 40 minutes. Jordan Hall backed him up with a solid 17 point outing that included going 10-11 from the free throw line, a statistic that proved key in a game that was decided by just 6 points.
The game was close the whole way through, and the Explorers saw themselves up by as much as 7 early in the 2nd half. Much of the reason for this came by La Salle controlling the paint, as they finished with a +12 rebounding margin and 15 second chance points.
Jack Clark led the Explorers in scoring with 12 points, although going just 1-6 from distance. La Salle had 4 players in the game score between 9 and 12 points, once again hitting on the storyline of their need to find that true leading scorer. Jhamir Brickus also showed some struggles with ball control, having a game high 5 turnovers. While struggling today, Brickus did show flashes of his playmaking ability, and Explorer fans have much to be excited for through following his development.
As Saint Joseph’s enters their next contest they will continue to rely on the trio of Daly, Hall and Taylor Funk. The three of them combined for 52 of the 72 total points in the contest, and the Hawks really only went with a 6-man rotation, something that more than likely will stay the same. Keep an eye on this trio moving forward… if they can stay out of foul trouble they have the talent to make a run at this thing.
