La Salle starts new year with win over Binghamton

With 2011 underway and Atlantic 10 play beginning Wednesday, La Salle was looking to turn the page yesterday when it faced Binghamton at the Tom Gola Arena.

Winners of just one of six games in December, a stretch that included narrow losses to some fine teams (Villanova and Oklahoma) and some humbling losses to teams they should have beaten (including Towson State and Rider), the 7-7 Explorers could not have been happier to see the Bearcats drop by.

By the end of the day, La Salle had surged to a 87-64 victory over Binghamton, which fell to 3-10 under head coach and former Temple star Mark Macon.

"Great way to start the New Year!" said La Salle forward Jerrell Williams, who had 12 points and was one of five Explorers to score in double figures. "We took some tough losses [in December]. But that was last year. This is the beginning of a new year."

Hearing that type of enthusiasm does wonders for La Salle head coach Dr. John Giannini, who praised his team for their "energy and commitment to defense." In his practices, Giannini said he has begun "charting positive comments" by his players, which he contended has led to a higher level of enthusiasm.

"The jury is still out [on the Explorers]," Giannini said. "Are we a team that can play with anyone in the country? Or are we a team that can lose to anyone [in the country]? It is 100 percent mental.

"When we were playing well, we had guys on the bench up and cheering. The same team that you saw beat Providence by double digits [in November] and lead Villanova and Oklahoma State for 39 minutes is the same team that has been struggling."

Forward Greer Wright helped the Bearcats stay close in the first half with 16 of his game-high 20 points. But La Salle began to ease away near the end of the half. Aided by two Binghamton turnovers, La Salle held an 11-point lead with 3 seconds remaining in the half when guard Sam Mills connected on a three-pointer on a feed from Tyreek Duren. Suddenly, the Explorers were up by 14.

"That gave us momentum going into the second half," said Duren, who led the Explorers with 18 points. "We went into the locker room [at halftime] so happy."

The Explorers capitalized on that in the second half. In what Giannini later called "our best defensive stretch in a long time," La Salle held the Bearcats scoreless for the first 3 minutes, 40 seconds of the second half. By the time Binghamton finally scored, the Explorers had opened up a 60-40 lead, which would later grow to as much as 31 points as Macon looked from his seat on the bench with increasing dismay.

The second-year coach later pointed to the advantage La Salle held over his team in rebounding: 44-23.

"They really hurt us on the glass," said Macon. "The game plan coming in was to stop them from killing us on the boards . . . And they hit shots.

"With only 2 minutes left in the first half, we were only down 6 points, 44-38. Then we get a turnover, another turnover, they score both times, and shoot a bad shot and they come down again. From that point on, it was downhill for us."

Under the cloud of an NCAA investigation for alleged infractions by his predecessor when he was hired last fall - that investigation did not turn up any major violations and was closed in October - Macon still has essentially the same players he had a year ago and is "at a point where we are stagnant." He said he is looking forward to bringing in recruits.

"I want basketball players," said Macon, who played under legendary Temple coach John Chaney. "Mean and gritty on the floor, just as nice as you want to be off it. I want Chaney-type players."

As Macon headed off to look at some players while he was in Philadelphia, Giannini said he was eager to begin A-10 play.

"The A-10 is so balanced," he said. "For us, it depends on our energy and enthusiasm."