PHILADELPHIA, PA - The La Salle University men's basketball team (10-7, 2-4 Atlantic 10, 0-3 Big 5) took the floor at The Palestra on Wednesday night with a season high five-game losing streak wanting to just put together two complete halves of solid basketball.  They accomplished that mission but still lost a 73-65 decision to the Penn Quakers (10-5, 1-2 Big 5).

 

Despite turning the ball over 11 times and trailing by as many as eight points in the first half, the Explorers went to the locker room trailing by just two points at 32-30.  The first-half comeback was due in large part to the 13 points posted by senior all-American, Wooden and Naismith Award candidate Steven Smith (Philadelphia, PA/Northeast) who scored 13 points and paced a team that shot 13-26 from the field in the opening 20 minutes. 

 

The Explorer rally was also sparked by the incendiary play of sophomore Tabby Cunningham (Philadelphia, PA/St. John Neumann) who collected three assists, a rebound and a steal in a span of 2 minutes and 18 seconds.   After Smith buried a jumper to cut the Penn lead to six points, Cunningham weaved between Quaker defenders and dealt a no-look pass to Lewis Fadipe (Lagos, Nigeria/Forest Hill School) who threw down a two-handed dunk to make it a four-point game at 26-22.

 

Seconds later Cunningham swiped the ball from David Whitehurst and led another break that ended with an assist on a Jermaine Thomas (Frederick, MD/Thomas Johnson) jumper. Not finished yet, Cunningham picked up a rebound after teammate Paul Johnson (Washington, DC/Gonzaga) blocked a Quaker shot and took it the length of the floor before dealing it to Smith who drained a three-pointer to give the Explorers their only lead of the half, 27-26.

 

When the Explorers found themselves trailing again in the second half it was another sophomore, Sherman Diaz (Diego Martin, Trinidad/Life Center NJ) that wowed the crowd of 4,916 with an explosive 18 seconds that helped the Explorers regain the lead.  His team trailing 48-45 with 11:06 to play in regulation, Diaz burst to the rack and threw down a jaw-dropping flush to cut the lead to three points at 48-45.  Seconds later he jumped a pass and broke free on a fast break before he was intentionally fouled by Eric Osmundson.  Diaz made both free throws and Smith added a jumper on the ensuing inbounds play to give the Explorers a 51-50 edge with 9:44 to play.

 

The Quakers regained the lead for good when Steve Danley hit two of his 12 free throw attempts with 8:51 to go. 

 

The Explorers fought to stay in the game but never led again as the Quakers rode a 10-17 shooting performance by Mark Zoller (25 pts./6 reb.) and 10-17 team free throw shooting down the stretch to victory. 

 

La Salle appeared to draw within two with 1:15 remaining when Smith hit a baseline jumper but the basket was waved off and Smith was assessed his fifth personal foul.  His subsequent reaction to the call that ended his game prompted a technical foul to also be called.

 

26 personal fouls were called on the teams in the second half and 42 total fouls were whistled for the game.  Penn shot 17-28 on the night while the Explorers made 11 of 13.  The Explorers have been out shot 67-29 on the charity stripe in the last two games.

 

Penn had more offensive rebounds (16) than defensive boards (15), scored 16 second-chance points and tallied 28 points off of La Salle's 20 turnovers.