PHILADELPHIA- The La Salle men's basketball team capped the regular season with a 55-53 defeat of the Dayton Flyers on Saturday evening at Tom Gola Arena.
 
The Explorers led for the first 26:06 until Dayton tied the game at 28-28 on a pair of Jordan Sibert free throws with 13:54 left in the game. The Flyers eventually led by as many as four points before La Salle regained the lead at 37-34 with 9:54 to go after seven unanswered points.
 
The game was tied at 37-37 and 39-39 before another seven-point run gave the Explorers a 46-39 lead with 3:44 to go. A dunk from Jerrell Wright sparked the run, which led to a three from Jordan Price and jumper from D.J. Peterson while La Salle held Dayton scoreless for 3:36.
 
"It was all about being mentally tough, there were a lot of games this year that we didn't finish strong," said Wright. "Today we wanted to go out and play defense and grab loose balls, grab rebounds."
 
Wright recorded an 11-point, 10-rebound double-double in his final game at Tom Gola Arena while Price finished with a game-high 21 points and eight rebounds. Wright also moved into third place in school history having played in 130 games in his career.
 
Senior Steve Zack had six points and a season-high 14 rebounds while Peterson also shined in his final game at Tom Gola Arena, distributing a game-high four assists to go with four points.
 
The Explorers held the Flyers to just 19 first half points, matching the lowest output of any half from Dayton this season.
 
The win was the 76th for the senior class, representing the most victories of any single class since 1993.
 
La Salle will play Thursday in the second round of the Atlantic 10 Tournament at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y. The opponent and game time will be announced later tonight.
 
To buy tickets for the Atlantic 10 tournament through Ticketmaster, please click here.