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La Salle’s shooting cools off in 73-60 defeat to Rhode Island at Tom Gola Arena

Seeking their third straight win, the Explorers cut a 10-point deficit to three with just under eight minutes to play, but scored only seven points the rest of the way.

La Salle's Christian Ray, right, playing against Drexel on Dec. 12.
La Salle's Christian Ray, right, playing against Drexel on Dec. 12.Read moreYONG KIM / Staff Photographer

The shots that had fallen for La Salle down the stretch of its big weekend victory at Richmond could not find the bottom of the net at crunch time Wednesday night against Rhode Island.

After cutting a 10-point deficit to three with 7 minutes, 52 seconds to play, the Explorers managed just seven points the rest of the way and dropped a 73-60 decision to the Rams in an Atlantic 10 Conference game at Tom Gola Arena.

Seeking its third straight win and a chance to go above .500 in the conference, La Salle (7-9, 4-5 A-10) connected on just 3 of its last 13 shots with three turnovers. The only three-point basket it hit during that time only narrowed the final gap to 13 points instead of 16.

“We tried to post the ball a little bit,” Explorers coach Ashley Howard said. “We had some success doing that. Then late in the game, we got away from it, we turned the ball over. I thought our guys got a little hesitant, but we’ve got to find a way to manufacture some baskets in a tight game like today.

“The last game [against Richmond], we were able to make some big plays. Today we didn’t make those plays and in addition to that, we didn’t come up with the necessary stops — the rebounds, the 50-50 balls that we needed to give ourselves a chance.”

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Sophomore Christian Ray was the only Explorer to finish in double figures, with 15 points as well as a team-high six rebounds.

Trailing 54-44 with 10:40 to play, Ray and Jack Clark accounted for all the points in a 9-2 run that brought La Salle to within three at 56-53. The Rams’ Jeremy Sheppard, who led all scorers with 25, then missed a jumper but the rebound went out of bounds off La Salle, and former Imhotep Charter star Fatts Russell (14 points, six assists) followed up with a driving scoop.

That sparked an 8-0 run for the visitors and made it 64-53. The Explorers drew to within nine twice, the final time on Sherif Kenney’s layup with 3:16 remaining, but didn’t score again until Scott Spencer’s three on their last possession.

After shooting 57.1% in wins over St. Joseph’s and Richmond last week, the Explorers managed just 38.3% accuracy Wednesday night. Rhode Island connected on 56.1% of its attempts.