Dec. 17, 2008

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PHILADELPHIA (AP) - Rodney Green scored 19 points to lead La Salle to a 92-75 victory over Rider on Wednesday night.

Green added eight rebounds and eight assists for the Explorers (5-4), who never trailed and led by double figures the entire second half. Kimmani Barrett had 16 points, Ruben Guillandeaux 13 and Yves Mekongo Mbala 10 for La Salle.

Ryan Thompson paced four Rider players in double figures with 19 points. Mike Ringgold added 16 points and nine rebounds for the Broncs (5-3), who never got closer than 11 points in the second half. Novar Gadson had 14 points and Matt Griffin added 11 for Rider, which was outrebounded 46-31.

La Salle opened an early lead and led by double digits in the first half before the Broncs went on a 10-3 run and cut the deficit to 31-27 with 4:09 left. But a dunk by Paul Johnson started a 10-0 run and La Salle pushed its advantage to 41-27 with 2:42 left. The Explorers carried a 44-34 lead into halftime.

La Salle scored nine of the first 11 points of the second half, capped by a 3-pointer from the right wing by Barrett, to take a 53-36 lead with 18:17 left.

La Salle extended its advantage to as many as 21 points in the second half.

The Explorers' 92 points were the most scored by the team since a 90-89 victory over Saint Joseph's on Feb. 18, 2008. The last time the team scored more than 92 points was on Feb. 7, 2007, when they poured in 105 in a 111-105 loss to Duquesne.

La Salle heads to Ithaca, N.Y., on Saturday for a tilt at Ivy League-favorite Cornell at 2:00 PM.