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PHILADELPHIA- La Salle men's basketball (1-0) opened up its season with a 57-52 win over Colgate (0-1), on Saturday afternoon at Tom Gola Arena. Senior Jerrell Wright and freshman Amar Stukes led the way with ten points apiece in the season opening win.
 
"It was a great win," said head coach Dr. John Giannini. "That is some really good basketball. Maybe not pretty, not guys raining three's and having 30 point leads, which I would like to see too. But if you can win gritty games under pressure, play great defense, and not turn the ball over that is awfully good."
 
Wright added in a game high 13 rebounds for the double-double on the night. Khalid Lewis added in nine points and D.J. Peterson hit his only shot of the game while adding in four assists and no turnovers.

The Explorers focused on not giving Colgate any open three-point looks and the game plan worked as the Raiders shot just 4-for-21 from three.

"Everyone will want to focus on our offense,," Giannini said. "But how about holding a great three-point shooting team, not good but 13^th in the nation last year, to just four threes. How about holding a team that has five guys who can knock it down from out there, and one of the best field goal percentages in the country last year, to just 36% for the game."
 
La Salle struggled shooting to open the game as Colgate jumped out to an early 13-6 lead. The Explorers closed the gap to just two points thanks to buckets by Khalid Lewis and Jordan Price. The Explorers ultimately grabbed their first lead of the game thanks to two free-throws from Khalid Lewis.
 
A late run in the first half including buckets from freshman Johnnie Shuler and Stukes gave the Explorers a 22-21 lead heading into halftime.
 
Lewis paced La Salle in the first half with six points, while Wright led the way with six rebounds. The Raiders had a 31.8% to 26.9% shooting advantage over the Explorers in the opening frame and out rebounded the hosts 20-15. The team defense by the Blue and Gold helped limit the damage thanks to 10 turnovers by the visitors in the first half, including three forced by Stukes.
 
"They're a three point shooting team so our game plan was to limit that three-point shot," said senior Steve Zack (eight points, six rebounds). "They ended up only making four of them and that was a big reason why we won this game. Everyone knew what they had to do, knew their assignments, knew their role. I felt like we did a great job as a team."
 
La Salle was able to pull away in the second half thanks in part to eight second half points from Stukes. The Explorers as a unit outscored Colgate 12-2 off the bench in the second half.
 
"Amar's second half was much better. He was very nervous early in the first half," Giannini said. "He is a big part of the reason we won the game."
 
The Explorer opened up a nine point lead after two free throws from Jordan Price and never looked back. The team went 9-10 from the line in the final five minutes to seal out the gritty win.
 
"That should be a sign of how this season might go," added Zack. "It shows the kind of work we put in this offseason. We have that toughness now to grind out these games down the stretch. We conditioned so we aren't tired. Everyone knows where they're supposed to be. We get stops when we need to."
 
La Salle hits the road next as they travel to Quinnipiac (1-0) for a Tuesday night matchup with tip scheduled for 8 p.m. 

NOTES: La Salle is now 5-1 on Homecoming since basketball became part of the event...The Explorers have won 19 of their last 21 non-conference home games at Tom Gola Arena...This was the fifth sellout in the past 13 games at Gola Arena...Jerrell Wrigh recorded his 11th career double-double...Amar Stukes, Johnnie Shuler, Jordan Price and Cleon Roberts all made their La Salle debuts.