Box Score
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KINGSTON, R.I. - Junior guard Tyreek Duren had 21 points and classmate Tyrone Garland added 14 as La Salle came back from a first-half deficit to defeat Rhode Island, 72-65, at the Ryan Center on Sunday. Senior Ramon Galloway had 13 points while sophomore Jerrell Wright scored 12 points and had a career-high 15 boards.

The Explorers (19-7, 9-4 A-10) trailed by as many as six points in the first half before cutting the deficit to 30-27 at halftime. The visitors shot just 30.4% from the field.

"In the first half, I thought our biggest problem was not sharing the ball," Giannini said. "We passed the ball much better in the second half. When we pass the ball, we're an awfully good team."

After intermission, Rhode Island (8-18, 3-9 A-10) quickly went ahead by seven points before a 17-2 run by La Salle flipped the momentum and quieted any chance of an upset by the Rams. Duren had eight points during the spurt and Galloway added seven as La Salle took a 47-39 lead with 12:39 to go.

The lead reached 13 points before URI, under first year head coach Dan Hurley, began to chip away. The Explorers went three mintues without a field goal and watched as a double-digit lead turned into a six-point advantage with 1:25 minutes to go. 

Junior guard Taylor Dunn, just into the game and seeing his first action, calmly hit two free throws with 34 seconds left that gave LU some breathing room and a Xavier Munford missed three-pointer forced Hurley to waive the white flag and give the Explorers their eighth road win of the season, tops in the Atlantic 10. 

"Coach told us at the half the only reason we were in the game was because of our defense," Duren said. "That's what we pride ourselves on.

"Every game we want to establish a good defense. We did that in the first half and in the second half we picked up our offense."

Garland dished a game-high six assists against no turnovers in one of his best all-around games of the season.

Munford led the Rams with 18 points and Mike Aamen and Nikola Malesevic each had 15.

The Explorers have not lost back-to-back games all season and will return home on Saturday to host Duquesne at 2 PM.