Men's Basketball | November 4, 2017

PHILADELPHIA -- Squaring off against one of the top Division II teams in the country, the La Salle University men's basketball team limited preseason All-American Dustin Sleva to 4-of-12 shooting and held Shippensburg to 31.6 percent from the floor in a 74-60 win on Saturday afternoon at the Tom Gola Arena at TruMark Financial Center.

Senior B.J. Johnson registered a double-double with a team-high 19 points and 13 rebounds, while classmate Amar Stukes added 18 points and sophomore Isiah Deas pitched in with 14 for the Explorers.

"We played a very experienced team with four or five starters back from last year's 27-4 team," head coach Dr. John Giannini said. "Those kids expected to win, we knew they could beat us. That's why we played them. We did not want a confidence builder, we wanted to play legit Division I competition but we're not allowed to play a Division I school (in an exhibition). So we had to go out and find an elite Division II team and they gave us all we could handle."
 
Six straight points from Stukes bumped the La Salle advantage to 11-6 in the early going, and the lead grew to 18-11 after a short jumper from freshman Miles Brookins at the 12:47 mark. The margin jumped to double figures at 28-15 following a trifecta from Deas, before seven straight by the Raiders cut their deficit to 28-22 with 5:56 left in the first half.

Two more threes from Deas nudged the Explorers in front, 34-24, and a buzzer-beating layup from Stukes put the score at 37-28 heading into intermission.

Shippensburg scored the first five points of the second half, including a three from Sleva, and a jumper from Justin McCarthur pulled the Raiders to within 43-40 with 13:30 on the clock. La Salle was able to withstand the run and five straight free throws over a 49 second span just beyond the midway point of the period bumped the Explorers back on top by double digits at 55-45.

The Explorers remained in front relatively comfortably the rest of the way thanks in part to Johnson, who converted all six of his free-throw attempts over the final 7:22. La Salle went 19-for-23 (82.6%) from the line in the game, including 16-for-17 in the second half.

Sleva had a team-high 15 points while Antonio Kellem had 10 for Shippensburg, who came into the contest ranked No. 8 in the Preseason NCAA Division II Poll. 

"I think we've played good teams (in preparation), we've had to defend different styles and I think we're as ready as we can be heading into game week," Giannini concluded.

La Salle begins the regular season on Saturday, Nov. 11 against Saint Peter's at Tom Gola Arena. A very special Opening Day will take place on La Salle's campus beginning at 12:00 p.m., with tipoff scheduled for 3:00 p.m. Tickets can be purchased by calling 215-951-1999 or by visiting goexplorers.com/buytickets.