Men's Basketball | December 5, 2019

by Austin Petolillo

Building on his strong MVP performance at the 2019 Gulf Coast Showcase, La Salle sophomore forward Ed Croswell put forth another solid effort on Sunday; this time against No. 22 Villanova.
 
Croswell finished with 14 points on 6-of-9 shooting and hauled in 10 rebounds in La Salle's 83-72 loss to the Wildcats at the Finneran Pavilion. It was Croswell's secodn straight double-double performance and his third in four games.
 
Though he was the leading scorer in this game for the Explorers, Croswell wasn't really a focal point of the Explorers offense in this game, through no fault of his own, explained Explorers head coach Ashley Howard.
 
"Eddie got in foul trouble so it hurt us in the first half," Howard said. "When you're playing behind, I know Villanova is a great 3-point shooting team, you want to chip away but we have to get some threes, too, because I know they're trying to get some so when you're down, it's hard to pound it inside knowing that you want to speed the game up, get turnovers and try to get some threes."
 
After Sunday's game, Croswell is on a good run of form that began on the team's trip to the Sunshine State.
 
At the Gulf Coast Showcase, Croswell totaled 35 points (11.7 ppg) and collected 29 rebounds (9.7 rpg) over three wins for the Explorers. The St. Joseph's Prep product tallied 11 points in La Salle's first game against Murray State, to go along with 10 rebounds, the scored the game-winning bucket with less than a second to go in a victory over Wright State. The title-game tilt against South Alabama saw Croswell produce 18 points and 12 rebounds.
 
In just his sophomore season, the 6-foot-8 Croswell, who led the country in offensive rebounding percentage as a freshman, is showing great strides in his development and is reaping the benefits on the court.
 
"I think what Eddie does well is just get all the miscellaneous points and clean-up stuff," Howard said. "When you go to Eddie, I think it's really good for our offense, it helps neutralize our perimeter game a little bit, and so Ed is a huge part of our team both offensively and defensively and I'm excited about the way he's developing."

Croswell and the Explorers will square off against a familiar foe, Philly rival Drexel, in a road contest slated for Saturday, Dec. 7.