WASHINGTON, D.C. – The La Salle men's basketball team opened its account in the Atlantic 10 Tournament on Wednesday afternoon, using an offensive outburst in the opening half to push past Saint Joseph's inside Capital One Arena.
 
"Obviously I'm really proud of our guys," said La Salle Head Coach Ashley Howard. "I thought our defensive effort and intensity was really good throughout the course of the game. Proud of our guys and glad that we get another opportunity to keep this run going."
 
HOW IT HAPPENED

• The Explorers came out the gates hot, Jack Clark with an early six points to hold an 11-7 advantage.
• La Salle fell victim to a quick 5-0 spurt from the Hawks to erase the 20-15 Explorer lead.
• Clifton Moore scored five of the next seven points for the Explorers, forcing a Saint Joseph's timeout.
• The Explorers extended the run to 13-3 after triples from Anwar Gill and Josh Nickelberry fell through the net.
• La Salle's defense stifled the Hawks, holding them scoreless for 6:38 towards the end of the half, eventually having their 19-3 run ended by back-to-back St. Joe's, heading into the break with a 39-27 lead over the Philly rivals.
• Saint Joseph's opened with seven straight points, cutting the lead to as little as five before head coach Ash Howard was forced into a timeout.
• After opening the half on a six minute drought, Christian Ray stopped the bleeding with a three on the wing, to regain a two possession advantage.
• The Hawks closed the gap to as little as just one point after Ejike Obinna powered an alley oop down with just over six minutes to play. Moore responded in suit, finishing at the rim before Ray knocked down his second triple to push the lead back to six.
• Clark all but sealed the victory for the Explorers with just over a minute on the clock, draining a deep three with little time left on the shot clock to push the advantage to eight.
• Four free throws from Khalil Brantley gave La Salle a double-digit lead, St. Joe's only managing to cut it down to seven as the Explorers defeated the Hawks for the third time on the season, completing a sweep over their Big 5 rivals.

• Clark finished with his third double-double of the season. After a career-performance at Duquesne, Clark followed it up with 20 points and a career-tying 13 rebounds, matching his previous best recorded at Drexel last season.
• Moore finished with 19 points, adding seven rebounds and four blocks in the win. The four blocks pushes Moore past Lionel Simmons after entering the game tied for the most blocks in a single season in La Salle history with 77.
• Brantley and Jhamir Brickus each tallied three steals to help the Explorers to an 11-4 advantage in points off turnovers.
• In the three matchups with Saint Joseph's, the Explorers have held the Hawks to just 63-191 from the field for a combined 33.0%.
• The Explorers led for 36:28 of a game that had just two lead changes, only trailing for 40 seconds against SJU.
• Charles Coleman produced a career effort of 18 points, adding 11 points to his game. Coleman and Obinna combined for 14-19 (73.7%) from the field, the rest of the Hawks going 10-49 (20.4%). The two collected 25 of the 46 rebounds for St. Joe's, helping the hawks to an 18-4 advantage in second chance points.
• Coach Howard picked up the first postseason win of his head coaching career, entering the day 0-3 in his first three attempts.
• The Explorers have their longest win streak of the season with four games, the longest in the conference entering postseason play.

• The Explorers continue their quest in the A-10 tournament, facing the fifth seeded Saint Louis on Thursday, March 10. The 2:30 tip inside the Capital One Arena can be seen on USA Network.