La Salle’s conference opener against George Mason was the definition of a head-scratcher. Here’s why.
If the first half made La Salle look primed to upset George Mason, the second might’ve perhaps confirmed why preseason polls had the Explorers picked to finish last in the conference.
For a long stretch in La Salle’s 77-62 loss to George Mason on Wednesday night, the Explorers were the dominant team.
The identity is clear: La Salle is a fast team that looks to take the ball away with any chance they can get. The pace was there inside Tom Gola Arena where the Explorers entered with a 7-2 home record, the energy was present on both sides of the floor.
Until, of course, it wasn’t.
In its Atlantic 10 opener, La Salle (9-5, 0-1 A-10) took a 43-37 lead into halftime and then emerged managing only to score just 19 second-half points. If the first half made the Explorers look primed to upset George Mason (12-2, 1-0 A-10), the second might’ve perhaps confirmed why preseason polls had La Salle picked to finish last in the conference.
However, in the midst of it all, a milestone was reached: Jhamir Brickus scored his 1,000th career point after leading the Explorers with 19 points. Junior guard Khalil Brantley added 17. Another bright spot was that sophomore forward Ryan Zan impressed in his minutes, finishing with 10 points while shooting a perfect 2-for-2 from beyond the arc.
So what went wrong?
Eventually, the better team in George Mason unveiled itself, and La Salle’s hot shooting from the first half came to an abrupt end. The Patriots opened the second period with a 9-3 scoring run and the ball kept rolling from there. Before being up 48-46, their previous lead was 16-15.
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George Mason’s resurgence came in large part from sophomore guard Keyshawn Hall who led all scorers with a double-double that featured 27 points alongside 13 rebounds. Senior guard Darius Maddox added 15.
The Explorers entered the 15-minute mark of the second half missing their previous 10 shots from three. Fueled by a dismal second half, the scoring bell curve took a true nosedive with La Salle finishing a woeful 37.7% from the field — 31% from three.
Even Brickus, the offensive driver of the night for Dunphy, had 12 of his total in the first half.
Where to go from here
La Salle’s next two games are all on the road against teams with wins in their respective conference openers. First up, Fordham on Saturday (noon, USA Network) followed by a UMass team on Wednesday (7 p.m., NBCSP), who’s currently on a four-game winning streak.