St. Joe’s shoots past sluggish La Salle, 71-59

St. Joseph’s jumped out to an early lead against La Salle and never let up, trouncing the Explorers, 71-59, Monday at Tom Gola Arena behind 20 points from Cameron Brown.

This marked the third annual meeting between the teams on Martin Luther King Jr. Day. It was also their first meeting since last year’s Atlantic 10 tournament, when La Salle beat St. Joseph’s, 63-56, in the opening round.

The Explorers (8-10, 2-3 Atlantic 10) swept the Hawks last year, but Monday was a different story for St. Joe’s (8-10, 2-4).

“It’s the La Salle-St. Joe’s game — just a gritty, tough-minded basketball game,” Hawks coach Billy Lange said. “You know La Salle, with their guards and their defense and the competitiveness of their head coach, is going to find a way to hang in and scratch and claw. Although we were ugly at times outwardly, inwardly I’m so pleased by the spirit of the group.”

St. Joe’s two leading scorers, Brown and Erik Reynolds, handled the scoring load. Reynolds rebounded from a four-point performance in a win against Loyola Chicago to net 19 points, going 4-for-6 on three-pointers. Brown was a perfect 4-for-4 from the free-throw line and 4-for-7 from behind the arc.

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After a 17-point performance against Loyola, sophomore forward Kacsper Klaczek went scoreless for the first time this season. Klaczek contributed in other ways, grabbing nine rebounds, although he fouled out midway through the second half.

“[The team has] never not believed. What they’re learning is what it takes,” Lange said. “We have a saying that we say: ‘See what you believe, become what you see.’ They believe they can be good.”

Fousseyni Drame tallied 24 points as the only Explorer to reach double figures.

The Hawks sprang out to a 12-0 lead, with the Explorers’ first points coming almost five minutes into the contest, courtesy of Drame, a senior forward. The Explorers’ first-half struggles are becoming a trend — this is the third game in a row they have found themselves in a hole early and have trailed at halftime. The Explorers left the court at halftime trailing, 39-27.

“That kind of set the tone for the game, then it was easy the rest of the way. I thought our offense all game was actually fairly good,” Lange said. “This is two days in a row where our starting five has come out and been locked in, mostly on the defensive end. So that’s the stuff that we’re talking to these guys about right now … setting that tone, that mentality of defense first.”

The Hawks built a lead that stretched to as much as 20 points. In the first half, the Explorers shot just 23.1% from beyond the arc, compared to 46.2% for St. Joe’s.

“In my mind, when you run poor offense, it leads to poor defense,” La Salle coach Fran Dunphy said. “We kind of fractured on the other end.”

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Although St. Joseph’s was plagued by turnovers, racking up 22 for the game, the Explorers were unable to take advantage.

“It’s just old-school fundamentals,” Lange said. “We just have to become more intentional. … Our guys need to be in situations like this. Honestly, we’re getting pressed, and we’re figuring out how to have coverage in those moments.”

Both teams will play Saturday, when St. Joseph’s will host UMass at 1 p.m. and La Salle visits St. Louis at 2:30 p.m.