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PHILADELPHIA – With a dominant effort on both sides of the ball, the La Salle men's basketball team defeated Lafayette, 79-53, in its season opener on Friday night at Tom Gola Arena.

Sophomore Tyreek Duren led all scorers with 17 points and six assists.  Senior Earl Pettis added 16, while junior Taylor Dunn had 12 and sophomore Sam Mills put up 10.

Senior Devon White added nine points and led all rebounders with a career-high of nine.

“I'm just extremely pleased,” head coach Dr. John Giannini said.  “I knew we were playing a good shooting team…. We rebounded, we played defense and we didn't turn it over. There was a lot to like.”

The Explorers (1-0) took control of the contest at the outset, scoring the first seven points of the game.  Duren stole the first two Lehigh possessions and converted on the first with a layup. He then dished the ball to Pettis for the layup the next time down the court.

“It's just our intensity on defense, everyone talking,” Duren said of the Explorers improved defensive effort. “Last year we didn't do any of that. That's why we had defensive collapses.” 

Shooting an efficient .567 from the field during the first half, the Explorers kept adding on to their lead.

White threw down a dunk after a pass from freshman D.J. Peterson to give the Explorers a 32-13 edge with just under six minutes to play in the first.  Mills extended the lead to 35-13 after hitting a trey.

Midway through the half, junior transfer Ramon Galloway went down while defending a drive and was carted off the court by a stretcher with a head/neck injury. He was taken to a local hospital for evaluation.

La Salle went into halftime up 43-20 after Duren hit a jumper with the seconds ticking down.

The Explorers came out on the attack after the break.  Back-to-back threes by Dunn put the Blue and Gold up 55-24 with 16:24 left to play.

La Salle took its largest lead of the game, 31 points, at 70-39 with seven remaining minutes remaining after a pull up jumper by Pettis.  The bench emptied as La Salle wound down the clock on a 79-53 victory.

The Explorer defense forced Lafayette into 12 turnovers to their ten and recorded seven steals.  La Salle shot .492 to the Leopards' .360 effort.

The Explorers improve to 6-2 all-time in home openers under Giannini.  The Blue and Gold are now 34-11 against Lafayette.

Two Leopards (0-1), Jim Mower and Dan Trist, hit double figures with 12 points each.

La Salle will travel to the Main Line to face Big 5 rival Villanova on Tuesday.  Tip-off is set for 7:00 p.m.