PHILADELPHIA- La Salle men's basketball (1-0) opened up its season with a 78-76 win over Towson (0-1) on Saturday at Tom Gola Arena. Sophomore Johnnie Shuler scored five straight points in the final 40 seconds to seal the win for the Explorers.
 
Shuler set a career-high with 15 points and was on the court for the entire 40 minutes. Jordan Price added a team-high 27 points and six rebounds for the Explorers.
 
"That was one of the most gritty, hard nose wins that I have had in my career," stated head coach Dr. John Giannini. "Towson is going to be a good team, and physically they are monstrous. We fought, and didn't turn the ball. Jordan scored, which he always does, and Johnnie came up big in crunch time. For us to be able to win a game like this is enormous."
 
La Salle was able to jump out to early lead thanks in part to a 10-0 run midway through the first half.  Sophomore Yevgen Sakhinuk helped fuel the run scoring seven of his 11 points during the stretch which gave the Explorers a 26-14 advantage with 9:59 remaining in the half.
 
The Tigers clawed their way back into things closing the deficit to just one at 40-39 after a John Davis three with 1:23 remaining in the half. However, Price scored the final five points of the half including a three-pointer with just 13 ticks left to give La Salle a 45-39 lead going into the half.
 
La Salle limited Towson to just 31.4% shooting in the first half while shooting 48.1% from the field themselves. Price led all scorers with 17 first half points while Cleon Roberts tied for a first-half high with five rebounds.
 
The Explorers were able to open up an eight point lead multiple times in the second half but the visitors erased the deficit and took its first lead of the game with 4:22 remaining at 71-70 after a Mike Morsell layup.
 
Shuler was able to curb the Tiger momentum when he intercepted a pass from William Adala Moto and was take it to the rim for the layup to put the Explorers back on top 75-73. Shuler proceeded to sink three of four free-throws down the stretch to seal out the win.
 
"I was able to read his eyes and look to the corner and I jumped to the ball," said Shuler. "It was a well fought game for us. We had to make plays at the end and that's what Coach G. talks about in practice every day."
 
La Salle played the final 8:54 with only five scholarship players available after Rohan Brown and Amar Stukes had fouled out and three players sitting out with injuries.
 
"We pulled each other together and said we had to dig down deep," added Price. "We were the only five (scholarship) guys who could play with the two fouled out. We had to dig deep and follow our training."
 
Yevgen Sakhniuk went sunk all five shots he took from the field to finish with 11 points in his first collegian action while adding three rebounds and a pair of blocks. Amar Stukes finished with a team-high four assists on the afternoon. Roberts was the final of the four La Salle players to make it to double-digits in scoring as he ended up with 11 points.
 
La Salle has a quick turnaround as it welcomes Rider (0-1) to Tom Gola Arena on Tuesday with tip slated for 7 p.m. The game will be streamed for free through GoExplorersTV and the Atlantic 10 Digital network.
 
NOTES: La Salle is now 6-1 on Homecoming since basketball became part of the event…The Explorers are now 10-2 all-time under head coach Dr. John Giannini in home openers and have won seven of the last eight…La Salle has won 23 of its last 27 non-conference regular seasons games at Gola…Yevgen Sakhniuk and Dusan Majstorovic both made their La Salle debuts in the win.