BELFAST, Northern Ireland – The La Salle University men's basketball team dropped a 67-60 decision to Towson on the opening day of the Hoophall Hall of Fame Belfast Classic on Friday.
 
Senior B.J. Johnson scored a game-high 24 points but the Explorers suffered through a poor shooting second half, going 8-for-27 (29.6%) including 2-for-12 from three-point range as they fell to 4-4 on the season. The Tigers improved to 7-1 with the win, and will take on Manhattan for the Belfast Classic championship on Saturday.
 
"We weren't nearly at our best and we played a really good team," head coach Dr. John Giannini said. "[Towson] clearly deserved to win the game."

"Towson physically did some really good things in terms of their defense and their rebounding," Giannini continued. "I just think we weren't up to the challenge the way that we have been in our last couple games. Mentally, we have to get up for a challenge [tomorrow] after being disappointed in a very short period of time."
 
The contest was a close one for the duration, and featured 11 ties and 17 lead changes as the margin never grew to double digits for either team.
 
The Explorers jumped out to an early lead thanks to hot shooting from long range. A trio of threes in the opening eight minutes gave La Salle a 15-6 advantage at the 12:24 mark. The lead proved to be the its largest of the game.
 
Towson came right back with nine consecutive points to tie the score at 15-15, and the contest was nip and tuck for the remainder of the first half.
 
The back-and-forth period had four ties and seven lead changes, and a layup from sophomore Isiah Deas knotted the contest at 33-33 at halftime.
 
La Salle scored the first four points of the second stanza but could not get any breathing room as the Tigers came back with six straight to take the lead.
 
The seesaw affair continued with sophomore Saul Phiri hitting a three to give the Explorers a 44-39 advantage at the 14:40 mark. But Towson continued its resilient play, putting together a 7-1 spurt to take a one-point lead.

Back and forth both teams went, with neither able to gain much traction. Deas converted on a fastbreak dunk to put the score at 52-48 in favor of La Salle, but a layup from Zane Martin put Towson on top, 56-53, at the 5:01 mark.
 
Redshirt junior Pookie Powell knotted the contest two minutes later with a free throw, but a layup from Eddie Keith II and a back-breaking three-pointer from Brian Starr with the shot clock running down gave the Tigers a lead they would hold the rest of the way.

Powell finished with 13 points and four assists and Deas had 10 off the bench for La Salle. Martin had 20 points to lead the Tigers, who had a 30-12 advantage in points in the paint and had a 21-7 edge in points off turnovers.

La Salle will look to bounce back against Holy Cross on Saturday, Dec. 2 at SSE Arena in Belfast. Tipoff is scheduled for 9:30 a.m. ET, and will be broadcast live on CBS Sports Network.