Cincinnati, OH-- The La Salle Explorers (18-10) came into Atlantic 10 Championship play as the third seed but opened up flat and found themselves trailing Fordham (16-15) 20-4 at the outset enroute to a 64-62 defeat at US Bank Arena on Thursday night.

The Explorers were led by sophomore Darnell Harris' (Baltimore, MD/ St. Francis) 17 points but his final shot with three seconds remaining, nor Jermaine Thomas' (Frederick, MD/Thomas Johnson) put-back would go down as the Explorers dropped their second game in eight days to the Rams.

After trailing by as many as 18 points in the second half the Explorers found themselves in postion to tie or go ahead when Paul Johnson (Washington, DC/Gonzaga) tipped in a Steven Smith (Philadelphia, PA/Norhteast) miss to draw to within 63-62 with 20 seconds left.The stick-back was the second in the final two minutes for Johnson who finished with 10 points and six rebounds

The two-time Atlantic 10 Player of the Year Smith was kept in check with 10 points and four rebounds.  He was held to just 31 minutes due to foul trouble and an minor elbow injury.

The loss is the third in the last four games for the Explorers whose 18 wins are the most in 13 years and whose third seed was the highest finish in their 11-year affiliation with the Atlantic 10 Conference.  It also sealed a bizarre and unprecendented quarterfinal day for the conference that saw its top four seeds exit after their first game.

The Explorers will now have to await for the newly-configured National Invitational Tournament committee to release its field of 40 teams on Sunday night before they will know if the careers of seniors Smith, Thomas and Lewis Fadipe are complete.

Last season the Explorers finished 10-19.