PHILADELPHIA – The La Salle men's basketball team won its third straight game, and fourth in its last five tries, with a 64-62 defeat over Richmond, holding off a late run by the Spiders in Tom Gola Arena on Thursday night.

"I love our toughness, they made a run which we thought they would and our guys hung in there," said head coach Dr. John Giannini. "They challenged us and our guys responded."

La Salle's (13-9, 5-4 A-10) balanced attack proved too much for the Spiders (12-10, 5-4 A-10) down the stretch as four Explorers finished in double figures, paced by 15 points from senior Jerrell Wright.

Senior Steve Zack recorded his third double-double this season, pulling down a game-high 11 rebounds to go with 10 points. The senior has secured double-digit rebounds 11 times this season.

Sophomore Jordan Price added 13 points while junior Khalid Lewis finished with 11 points and five assists.

Although the Explorers led for the entire game and by as many as 16 points after the break, Richmond scored 14 unanswered points midway through the second half to make it a two-point game with 10:21 to play.

The Spiders engineered their run during a 7:51 scoreless stretch for the Explorers before a Zack free throw with 9:00 remaining.

Richmond's ShawnDre' Jones then hit a pair of foul shots at 7:17 to cut La Salle's lead to 45-44 before the Explorers used a 10-0 run of their own to push the lead back to 11 points.

The Explorers were able to maintain at least a four-point lead until a layup from UR's Trey Allen with 21 ticks to go made it 62-59 and setup a late three from Nelson-Ododa. The Explorers then successfully inbounded the ball to Zack, who was fouled. Zack made one of two free throws with 0.6 seconds to play to seal the victory. 

La Salle jumped out to a 10-0 advantage in the first half as they held Richmond scoreless until a Kendall Antony three-pointer at the 15:33 mark. La Salle recorded seven straight stops and forced three turnovers during the Richmond scoring drought.

"What really matters is the defense and we were getting stops in the first half," said Zack. "We held them to 26 points in the first half so that is always our key."

The Explorers will look to make it four in a row on Sunday as they visit the Massachusetts Minutemen at the Mullins Center at 4 p.m. on CBS Sports Network.