La Salle picks up fourth straight win with 86-70 defeat of Massachusetts

Career days from several Explorers lifted La Salle over UMass, 86-70, for its fourth win in a row.

With La Salle’s 2023 Hall of Athletes class in attendance Saturday afternoon at Tom Gola Arena, including members of 1989-90 men’s basketball team, the Explorers (12-13, 6-6 Atlantic 10) secured the season sweep over the Minutemen (13-12, 4-9).

After a rough start to 2023, La Salle returned its conference record to .500.

T.J. Weeks Jr. led UMass with 16 points while Matt Cross added 15.

“Later in the first half we kind of died down a little bit. … In the second half, we caught a big spark off the guys off the bench, Anwar Gill, Daeshon Shepherd, and myself,” senior guard Josh Nickelberry said. “I’m just glad we pulled out the win and continued the streak.”

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UMass built as much as a nine-point lead in the first half, but La Salle clawed back within two at halftime. From there both teams traded leads, but neither able to stay on top for an extended period.

That is, until Nickelberry drilled three-pointers on consecutive possessions with just over eight minutes remaining. Gill followed it up with a steal and a layup to bring the Explorers their highest lead of the game, 66-59. Momentum permanently shifted in the Explorers’ favor, and they never again surrendered the lead.

“Especially down the stretch closing out the game, we need our home-court advantage,” Nickelberry said. “So when I’m able to make shots, when any of our teammates are able to make shots, it just helps us out.”

Nickelberry, who started the first 18 games of the season but has been playing off the bench since the end of January, had a team-high 21 points on a season-high 7-of-11 from three.

“We’re coming off a streak where we lost five,” Nickelberry said. “So now that we’ve just been trying to get those back and finish the season strong with the Atlantic 10 tournament. We just gotta keep pushing, keep in focus.”

La Salle forward Rokas Jocius had a career day on both ends of the court. In 21 minutes off the bench, the true freshman set a career high in blocks with four, all of them coming in the first half.

“A huge play was Rokus making the three,” La Salle head coach Fran Dunphy said. And another huge play was in transition, he gets the ball, lays it in, foul. So it gives us six points when we were struggling. So I thought his play was terrific.”

Jocius also matched his highest career point total with 12, his third double-digit point total of the season. La Salle’s big man had an 83.3% shooting percentage.

“[Jocius] was very much a factor in the game,” Dunphy said. “I was really thrilled for him. Nice to see a young guy step up and get the kind of game he did.”

Khalil Brantley added 17 points, four assists, and four steals. Shepherd led the team with seven rebounds and had 13 points that included two dunks that brought the crowd to its feet.

Rounding out La Salle’s double-digit scorers, Gill dropped 12 points.

“Those are great numbers,” Dunphy said. “We need those. Those are some things you want to share as much as you can. That was a real good effort.”

La Salle will go after its fifth consecutive win when it hosts Richmond (12-13, 5-7) on Wednesday (7 p.m., ESPN+).