Posted by: Kale Beers
Philadelphia, PA - Junior Darnell Harris (Baltimore, MD/St. Frances Academy) bested his career high with a 27-point effort to lead the way in an 84-78 La Salle (2-0) victory over the Howard Bison (1-3) on Tuesday night at Tom Gola Arena.
The Explorers and the Bison exchanged the lead 16 times before Sherman Diaz (Life Center/Diego Martin, Trinidad & Tobago) hit a pair of free throws with 7:37 left to put his team up for the remainder of the game. Diaz would score six points and dish out a game-high five assists.
Earlier in the game Howard had built a six-point lead at 36-30 with 2:18 left in the first half before a 9-2 run to close the half ended with a Kimmani Barrett (Paterson, NJ/Paterson Catholic) three-pointer at the buzzer to send the Explorers into the break with a 39-38 lead.
Harris, who also set a new career mark with a team-high six rebounds in the effort, was 10-15 from the field and 4-6 from the stripe bringing his two-game total to 52 points on 18-28 shooting including 9-13 from the three-point arc.
Freshman Rodney Green (Philadelphia, PA/Prep Charter) played only 21 minutes but scored a career-high 17 points on seven shots (7-9) before leaving the game with foul trouble. Also enjoying a career night was sophomore Paul Johnson (Washington, DC/Gonzaga) who posted 15-points on 6-8 shooting.
Eight of the Explorers' nine players found their way to the basket in a game where the the team posted its most points in a regulation contest since scoring 85 on St. Francis last season on December 28 at Tom Gola Arena.
The win brings Explorer head coach Dr. John Giannini to 30-29 at the school with 20 of those wins coming in the last 30 games. The Explorers have not lost a game in November since a 79-59 loss at Hofstra on the 24th day of the month in 2004. Since then they are 6-0 in games played in the season's opening month.
The Explorers will hit the road for the first time when they travel to Loretto, PA to battle St. Franics with a 7:00 PM tip-off slated for Saturday at DeGol Arena.
