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St. Joseph’s rode its one big advantage to an A-10 tournament win over La Salle | Mike Jensen

Ryan Daly was out most of the season, but when he’s on the court, he’s the most important player. The Hawks get to play again Thursday because of it.

Ryan Daly (1) was the difference-maker in St. Joseph's first-round win over La Salle in the A-10 tournament on Wednesday.
Ryan Daly (1) was the difference-maker in St. Joseph's first-round win over La Salle in the A-10 tournament on Wednesday.Read moreKeith Lucas/Atlantic 10 Conference / Keith Lucas/Atlantic 10 Conference

It set up pretty well for La Salle. The Explorers had taken the lead back from St. Joseph’s, seven minutes to go in this 2021 Atlantic 10 tournament survival test. La Salle had more players to throw at the situation, fresher legs.

But they didn’t have a guy. If you’ve paid attention, you know St. Joe’s has a guy. Ryan Daly was out most of the season, but when he’s on the court, he’s that guy. The Hawks get to play again Thursday because of it.

La Salle needs a guy. The season is over, the Explorers coming home from Richmond, Va., on the wrong side of 72-66, because of it.

“I think it’s really important for us,” La Salle coach Ashley Howard said of developing such a guy. “When you look at our team, we’re so balanced, but we don’t have that guy consistently. Throughout the course of the game, we’re looking for who has the hot hand, who’s in a good rhythm, right? I do believe we have some guys who can develop into that.”

» READ MORE: Ryan Daly and St. Joe’s stay on a roll after first-round A-10 tournament win over La Salle

It’s weird that an advantage can almost be a disadvantage, all that legitimate depth of quality talent. Name a player who sees time for the Explorers, they would see a similar amount of time for whichever team ends up winning the A-10 tournament.

Did they feel like they got the shots they wanted in the second half?

“Honestly, we did,” said Jack Clark, La Salle’s high scorer with a dozen points on 4-for-11 shooting. “Those are shots we practice every day. We practice and in shootaround. They just weren’t falling for us today. … They were knocking down hard shots, and we were just missing easy ones, so they just got the better of us.”

There are two sides to every coin. If St. Joe’s emphasized keeping the area around the rim jammed up, that would create some pressure on those shots that are available. Hawks players noted there also was a second-half emphasis on keeping La Salle’s Christian Ray away from the offensive glass, since second-chance hoops could be the difference.

Also, if you have a guy, it matters how you use him. Sure, Daly hit a massive three-pointer, giving the Hawks a 67-60 lead with just over a minute left. But he also missed the other four threes he tried. Just watch closer, see Daly setting screens for teammates, which is an old John Chaney trick. If opponents want to double your top guy, have him set screens so defenders are forced into untenable choices. Jordan Hall kept getting to the lane, getting fouled, converting free throws.

» READ MORE: Coaching (and sometimes playing) while masked, a 2020-21 thing | Mike Jensen

Maybe having a guy offers mental energy of its own. Let’s face it, in Taylor Funk, St. Joe’s has a second all-A-10 type guy, too. Your first guy is always better when you have a second guy to share the load, and vice versa. (Two guys, better than one.)

Neither of these teams, by the way, was terribly excited about playing the other.

“To come back like we did in the second half against their speed, athleticism, toughness,” St. Joe’s coach Billy Lange said in lauding his support staff for having his team ready to go after beating Richmond Monday. “They’re a dangerous, dangerous team. I just respect the heck out of what they’re doing over there. Having worked a year at La Salle, there’s an inherent toughness that you get being there. I just thought they posed a tough matchup, as we all know.”

La Salle had gotten the better of the Hawks in their first meeting, continually getting to the rim. The Hawks won a shocker Feb. 20 when Daly returned from a two-month injury absence to score 30 points. At halftime Wednesday, La Salle had a 39-34 edge. After that, the Hawks were able to keep La Salle away from the rim just enough.

“Trying to control the best way you can, [Jhamir] Brickus’ impact on the game, the best way you can,” Lange said, mentioning keeping Ray at bay was big, too.

» READ MORE: From the A-10: St. Joe's-La Salle photo gallery

Howard began his media conference with a simple reminder about what the past year has been like.

“I’m most proud of my team,” Howard said. “We didn’t have an opportunity to be together at all for six months. Our guys came back Sept. 1 and from that point forward we were in a COVID-19 protocol situation. It was limited gym access, small group workouts, then a gradual buildup to getting to the point where we were trying to build our team and put it together.”

Managing the expectations of a season, Howard said, was the challenge, “when everything is normal on the outside looking in, but on the inside every day, it’s far from normal for everybody. From that point, our guys did a phenomenal job all season to do anything they could do to have a complete season. We did that. I give our guys a ton of credit for being responsible off the court.”

On the court, there were wins over Dayton, St. Louis, and Richmond, which maybe made it harder to reconcile it all adding up to 9-16.

Not a huge mystery, though …

You need a guy.