La Salle keeps the Philadelphia hex on Davidson
The Explorers became the third Philadelphia team to defeat Davidson this season during Wednesday's 79-69 home victory over Davidson. .
Davidson hasn’t fared too well against teams from Philadelphia this season, and that trend continued as La Salle became the third team from the city to administer a loss to the Wildcats.
With 6-foot-6 junior Isiah Deas scoring a career-high 25 points and 6-1 redshirt junior Traci Carter adding his own career high of 24, La Salle defeated Davidson, 79-69, on Wednesday at Tom Gola Arena.
Carter shot 9-of-11 from the field and hit all four three-point attempts as La Salle snapped a three-game losing streak.
“I read the floor and looked for my team and just took what they gave me,” said Carter, whose previous high was 18 points earlier this month against Saint Joseph’s.
The Explorers are 9-18 and 7-8 in the A-10 but are 9-8 after an 0-10 start.
Davidson is now 1-3 this season against Philadelphia schools, also losing to Temple and splitting with Saint Joseph’s.
The Wildcats are 19-5 against everybody else. The loss dropped Davidson to 11-4 in the A-10, tied for second with Dayton, behind VCU. Kellan Grady, a 6-5 sophomore, had 21 points for Davidson.
The win was more impressive considering that Pookie Powell, La Salle’s leading scorer at 16.2 points per game, was sidelined after sustaining a lower-body injury during Tuesday’s practice. He is listed as day to day.
"When Pookie Powell is out there, he draws so much attention that it makes my job so much easier, being able to catch and shoot,” said Deas, whose previous high came opening night when he scored 23 against Temple. “With him being out today, I had to be more aggressive, looking for my shot and getting to open spots on the floor.”
La Salle led by as many as 12 points in the first half and entered halftime with a 38-29 lead. Saul Phiri, the Explorers’ 6-4 junior, led the way with 14 first-half points, shooting 5-of-7 from the field, including 4-of-5 from three-point range.
Deas and Carter then took over in the second half, scoring 32 of their combined 49 points. Davidson never cut the lead below seven points in the final 20 minutes.
A key was that La Salle outrebounded the Wildcats, 37-30, with 6-8 freshmen Ed Croswell and Jared Kimbrough having 11 and six respectively, and Carter adding six as well.
“We came out today to just make a point to each other that we can get back to playing our basketball, [with] defending and rebounding being the priority and let the offense take care of itself,” La Salle coach Ashley Howard said.
Most telling on offense was three-point shooting. La Salle was 13-for-28 (46.4 percent) while the Wildcats were 10-of-28 (35.7 percent).