Men's Basketball | February 26, 2018
PHILADELPHIA - La Salle senior
B.J. Johnson has been named the Atlantic 10 Men's Basketball Co-Player of the Week, it was announced by the league on Monday. Johnson, who had two fine performances last week, shares the award with URI's Jeff Dowtin.
On Tuesday, Johnson put together one of the top individual performances in recent La Salle history against No. 18 Rhode Island. The 6-7 forward scored 29 points and grabbed a career-high 23 rebounds as the Explorers took the Rams to overtime before falling, 95-93.
The 23 boards were one shy of the Atlantic 10 single-game record held by former George Washington center Yinka Dare. Dare, who was drafted in the first round of the 1994 NBA Draft, grabbed 24 rebounds against St. Bonaventure on Feb. 6, 1993.Â
Johnson became the first Explorer to pull down 20 rebounds in a game since the late Rasual Butler, who hauled in 20 against Morris Brown on Nov. 18, 2001, and the first La Salle player to score at least 20 points along with 20+ rebounds since Lionel Simmons had 29 points and 20 boards against Army on Feb. 27, 1990.
The Philadelphia product followed up that impressive outing with 23 points and nine rebounds in a 73-60 win at Fordham on Saturday. Midway through the second half, Johnson became the 56th player in La Salle history to score at least 1,000 points in a career -- doing so in less than two full seasons.
On the week, Johnson averaged 26.0 points and 16.0 rebounds while shooting 51.5 percent from the floor and 87.5 percent from the free throw line.Â
La Salle (12-17, 6-10 A-10) will host Dayton for its final home game of the regular season at Tom Gola Arena at TruMark Financial Center on Wednesday, Feb. 28. Tipoff is set for 7:00 p.m. Tickets can be purchased online by visiting
goexplorers.com/buytickets, or by calling 215-951-1999.
