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PHILADELPHIA – La Salle senior Tyreek Duren scored 27 points, including a 16-for-17 performance from the foul line, and junior Jerrell Wright added 17 points and 12 rebounds as the Explorers upended Saint Joseph's, 71-63, at Hagan Arena on Sunday. With the victory, La Salle locks up the eighth-seed in the 2014 Atlantic 10 Championship and will play #9 St. Bonaventure on Thursday at noon. The game will be broadcast locally on Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia.

The Explorers finish the season with a 3-1 Big 5 mark. It is the second straight season of 3-1 records in the City Series, the best two year showing since the 1988-89 and 1989-90 teams went 7-1 in the Big 5.

"[Coach] always gives a good motivational speech before a Big 5 game," Duren said. "He talks about how important it is to our alumni and our fans. We try to win the Big 5. The winner of the Big 5 always goes to the [NCAA] Tournament."

Duren was his usual poised self and came up two points short of a career-high. The 16 made free throws doubled his previous career-high and are just two short of a school record set by Lionel Simmons on February 2, 1988 vs. American. He made 10 for 10 in the final 90 seconds to help stave off the Hawks, who had their Senior Day spoiled with the loss.

"He is the guy we want with the ball," Giannini said. "He deserves all the credit. I think right now he understands how important he is to our team, for him to have the ball."

Duren played all but one minute and committed just one turnover. He also moved past two notable Explorers, Jack Hurd and Tim Legler, into 14^th place on the all-time scoring list with 1,714 points.   

La Salle put together one of its most complete games of the season at Hawk Hill, in just the second visit to SJU's campus since 1992. The Explorers tied a season high with 25 made free throws and the 80.6% from the charity stripe was the fourth best of the campaign.

The Blue and Gold committed just five turnovers, while forcing 14, and tied a season high with 11 steals. Senior Sam Mills led the way with a career-high five.

Wright recorded his sixth double-double of the season and posted 14 of his 17 points in the second half. The 12 rebounds were the most since pulling down 15 against SJU on February 15.

Giannini mixed defenses, which included a box-and-one defense against the Hawks, which took them out of their rhythm. Leading scorer Langston Galloway managed 27 points but Halil Kanacevic and Chris Wilson combined for just eight and only five Hawks registered points.

DeAndre Bembry added 15 and Ronald Roberts scored 13 for SJU (21-9, 11-5 A-10).

St. Joe's led 18-12 midway through the first half but did not make a field goal in the final eight minutes as La Salle mounted a 17-3 run to take a 33-23 advantage into the locker rooms. Steve Zack had five, as did Duren, during the spurt.

The Explorer lead reached 13 with 12:05 to play and St. Joe's would cut it to five two minutes later thanks to an 8-0 run.

But they hosts would get no closer as La Salle, especially Duren, was money from the foul line down the stretch.
Now winners in three of its last four games, La Salle heads to Brooklyn with some momentum.

 "With the team we have right now, we can beat any of the teams in the A-10," Duren said. "If we play like we did today, we can beat all of those teams in [the A-10 Tournament]."

NOTES: La Salle is 15-3 when scoring at least 70 points…La Salle's senior class of Taylor Dunn, Duren, Garland and Mills is the winningest class in the past 22 years (75 wins)…This was the first season that both meetings against St. Joe's were played on campus and just the third game on either school's campus since La Salle joined the A-10 in 1995-96…