Sideline Photos

Box Score

Fairleigh Dickinson FDU 0-8,0-0 NEC

La Salle LaS 4-4,0-0 Atlantic 10

Fairleigh Dickinson FDU

0-8,0-0 NEC

Final

Dec. 07, 2021

La Salle LaS

4-4,0-0 Atlantic 10

Score By Periods
Team	1	2	F
Fairleigh Dickinson FDU	33	22	55
La Salle LaS	44	37	81

Game Recap: Men's Basketball | December 7, 2021

Men’s Basketball Cruise in 81-55 Victory over FDU

PHILADELPHIA – The La Salle men's basketball team played their most complete game of the season, leading wire-to-wire as they defeated FDU 81-55 in a rout inside Tom Gola Arena on Tuesday afternoon.

HOW IT HAPPENED

The Explorers came out the gates hot from distance, knocking down their first three attempts from behind the arc to take an early lead.
After making his debut in the win over Holy Cross, Daeshon Shepherd continued to make noise as he connected on his first attempt of the night, finishing with authority an alley oop from Jhamir Brickus to capitalize on a turnover from the Knights.
Maintaining the early lead, Jack Clark scored six straight points for the Explorers to push the advantage back to double-digits at 26. Clark and Anwar Gill combined for 14 of 16 points over a 7:10 span through the middle of the half, La Salle still holding a lead at 34-28. In that spurt, Gill hit his first triple of the season, tickling the twine from the corner.
A couple of exchanges each way saw the two team trading punches before a pair of Josh Nickelberry free throws and a deep three from Brickus concluded the half on a small five point burst to push the lead to 11 points – the largest lead of the opening half – and gave the Explorers a 44-33 advantage into the break.
The Explorers continued to cruise on the other side of the break. A Nickelberry three extended the lead to 50-37, the next possession seeing a crafty Gill poking away the ball from a Knight before saving it into the path of Christian Ray. The junior found Clifton Moore on the fastbreak and the senior slammed home.
Moments later, La Salle had another moment worthy of the highlight reel. Brickus' jump shot hit the front side of the rim and bounced up, Shepherd leaping over the host of bodies in the paint and thundering home the putback dunk to increase the lead to 15.
All Explorers in the second half, the hosts would go on a 14-0 run over 5:23, a 27-4 run over the span of 12 minutes to push the lead to 30 after Matt McFarlane knocked down a triple from the wing.
La Salle cruised into the final buzzer as Charles Ireland hit his first collegiate basket with no time on the clock to give the Explorers an 81-55 victory.

GAME NOTES

After a career-high 28 points last time out, Nickelberry continued his hot shooting with 15 first half points on 5-8 shooting. Nickelberry finished with a game-high 24 points, finishing with an 8-12 performance.
Clark had one of his best performances of the season, tying a season-best 18 points while tallying eight rebounds.
Gill tallied a career-high nine assists in the win, the most by an Explorer since Brickus dished 10 dimes in a win over Fordham last season (January 2, 2021). The sophomore also tallied seven points and five rebounds on the night.
Mamadou Doucoure had his best night in an Explorer jersey, leading with a team-high 10 rebounds in just 16 minutes of action. The 10 boards set a career-high, better than his previous of nine on the floor with Rutgers against Minnesota on December 3, 2017.
Both teams ended the first half connecting on more than half of their shots from the field, La Salle shooting 17-29 (58.6%) while FDU connected on 14-25 (56.0%) attempts.
The Explorer defense clamped down in the second half, holding the Knights to just 8-36 (22.2%) from the field. The 55 points is a season-low allowed for a La Salle opponent.
The 44 points scored in the first half is the second-most on the season, only trailing a 47 point output in the second half against Holy Cross.
La Salle had its largest margin of victory against the Knights, tallying a 26 point win.
The Explorers led for 39:28 of the contest, never trailing in the game.
Kyle Thompson (3:18), Charles Ireland (1:44) and Brandon Dwyer (1:44) all grabbed their season debuts, the latter duo making their first collegiate appearances.