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PHILADELPHIA – Up 33-30 at halftime, the La Salle men's basketball team (11-4, 1-1 A-10) shot 57 percent (13-23) from the field in the second half en route to a 71-59 victory over the visiting Richmond Spiders (11-6, 1-1 A-10) on Saturday afternoon at Tom Gola Arena. Tyrone Garland led all scorers with 17 points (6-14 FG, 0-3 3PT, 5-5 FT) while Tyreek Duren posted a 15 point (5-14 FG, 0-4 3PT, 6-6 FT), seven assist, seven rebound line with only one turnover. The junior stands only two points shy of the 1,000 mark for his career.

“That was an extremely hard fought win,” head coach Dr. John Giannini said. “They have very skilled, outstanding guards. We had to play four guards to match up against them.”

Perhaps the most impressive aspect of La Salle's victory was its back court depth, which overcame a two point outing from its leading scorer, Ramon Galloway. Galloway entered the weekend as the leading scorer in the Atlantic 10 (18.1 ppg), but managed only 14 minutes on Saturday due to foul trouble. The senior watched from the bench as Garland and Duren carved up the Spider defense in the second half with Sam Mills (7 pts, 4 ast) and D.J. Peterson (6 pts, 3 ast) serving as accomplices.

“I think we all felt that way,” Duren said when asked if he felt others needed to step up in Galloway's absence. “Anytime one of our teammates go down because of foul trouble or injury, somebody else has to come in and fill that spot. I think everybody on the team stepped it up a little bit today - our guards, our big men, even people off the bench. I think everybody brought it.”

The Explorers led nearly the entire first half, with Richmond's only advantage coming at the 1:36 mark (30-29). Duren ended the period with a nifty up and under move right before the buzzer, sending the Blue and Gold into halftime with a three point lead and the momentum.

That momentum carried over into the second stanza, one which La Salle never trailed. The lead bloated to 54-46 (6:23), but the Spiders answered and trailed only 54-50 at the 5:35 mark. However, Garland converted an old-fashioned three point play the following possession, and the Explorers remained in control the rest of the way, burying 10 free throws in the game's final two minutes to cement the win.

La Salle shot 47 percent (28-60) from the field, 20 percent (3-15) from three, and 80 percent (12-15) from the free throw line for the game. Conversely, the Spiders converted at 41 percent (24-59) from the field, 22 percent (4-18) from behind the arc, and 88 percent (7-8) from the charity stripe. Richmond entered the game as the conference's top three point shooting team at 39 percent. The Explorers forced 16 Spider turnovers while coughing up only 10 of their own.

The sophomore front court posse of Steve Zack (11 pts, 6 reb) and Jerrell Wright (12 pts, 6 reb) carried the Blue and Gold for much of the afternoon. Zack scored seven straight for the Explorers over a stretch midway through the first period, seeing their lead stretch to 27-19 in the process. Wright began the second half on a mission, scoring six straight La Salle points coming out of the break, including a thunderous dunk over two Spider defenders after hauling in an offensive rebound (17:40). The youthful tandem converted 11-14 (79 percent) from the field, picking up their teammates' struggles from long range.

“I think we got a big lift from the bigs today,” Garland said. “I thought they played a wonderful game. That's what got us our spark.”

“We have excellent role definition, so I'm not too worried about offense,” Giannini said. “But when we defend like that, we can beat good teams and they really challenged us and our guys stepped up.

I think this can be a turning point for us defensively, because their guards are that good and that offense is that hard to guard.”

The Explorers are back in action on Wednesday at 7 PM, when Dayton pays a visit to Tom Gola Arena.