Game Recap

by Paul Hembekides

PHILADELPHIA – The La Salle men's basketball team's chance to start A-10 play with a victory was slipping away. Up 74-72 with 6.3 seconds left, the Explorers fumbled away an inbounds pass under their basket and into the hands of GW guard Joe McDonald. McDonald took one dribble and went up for the game-tying layup, but Sam Mills was ready for him. Mills took the charge and the Explorers proceeded to a 76-72 win in their Atlantic 10 opener on Thursday evening at Tom Gola Arena.

Head coach Dr. John Giannini has lauded Mills throughout his career for doing the little things. In this case, his senior guard's heady defensive play in the game's waning seconds proved to be the antitheses of a little thing.   

"That charge is the thing that defines players as winners and can alter your season," Giannini said post-game.

"I just wanted to make a big play for my team," an enthusiastic Mills said. "I saw him [McDonald] coming over for a wide-open layup and I had to stop him."

He did, and his effort placed a cherry on top of his best individual performance of the season. The Sunrise, Fla. native buried a season-high 17 points (6-8 FG, 5-7 3-PT), none bigger than a triple late in the shot clock at the 3:42 mark in the second half to put the Explorers up 66-62 to help thwart a Colonial surge.

"This whole season, we've been up early getting up shots," Miss said. "It's good to see carryover from it."

Mills entered the season fourth on La Salle's all-time three point percentage list (.406) but knocked down only 35 percent (12-for-34) of his triples through his first 10 games.

"In the beginning of the season, shots weren't going in but offense is going to be like that," Mills said. "There are going to be on and off games."

Mills flipped the switch on against Wagner on December 19 and has knocked down 55 percent (12-22) of his threes in the four games since.

"I know Sam's a consistent shooter," classmate Tyreek Duren said post-game. "I was just waiting for him to have a breakout game. He's been having them lately so I think that's helping our team win."

The Explorers have won three of their last four.

Mills improved shooting only tells half of the story of his performance Thursday evening. Perhaps more significantly, he limited Maurice Creek, GW's leading scorer coming into the game (16.0 ppg) to just 8 points on 3-12 shooting.  

"Coach G just gave me a challenge," Mills said. "He wanted to me stop him by any means and just make every shot tough for him and make him put the ball on the floor as much as possible."

"I'm really pleased with Sam but I don't think anyone's surprised because that's the sort of thing he does," Giannini said.

Mills turned in a performance last season similar to this one, burying seven threes on eight attempts in an 89-53 win over Fordham on February 9. Mills knocked home 50 percent of his shots from the arc the rest of the season, all the way to the Sweet 16.

Could Thursday's performance boost him the same way the remainder of this year?

"Yeah, hopefully," Mills said. "We have Duquesne next so I'm just going to keep putting up shots and preparing for them."