Atlantic 10 Basketball: Balanced attack leads La Salle to rout of Rhody

La Salle defeated Rhode Island in an Atlantic 10 basketball showdown in Kingston.

Is Dayton and VCU officially the two teams to beat in the Atlantic 10?

Maybe we can add La Salle into the mix, as the Explorers went into Kingston, Rhode Island and routed the Rhode Island Rams, winning 87-75.

“They probably had one of their worst games, and we probably had one of our best,” La Salle head coach John Giannini said postgame. “We’d like to think our effort had a lot to do with that. But to beat a team that was undefeated at home, to beat a team that was in the top 50 of the RPI, to beat a team whose losses were by tiny margins against killer opponents on the road, I’m just thrilled.”

The game wasn’t nearly as close as the final score would indicate. The Explorers blitzed the Rams out of the gate, led by 21 at the half and never let the home team cut the lead down to single digits in the second.

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The Explorers were outstanding offensively, using their balance to score 87 on one of the best defensive teams in the conference.

Amar Stukes, who normally averages just 6.1 points per game, scored 22 points, including hitting 13-of-14 from the free throw line, while Pookie Powell and B.J. Johnson scored 16 apiece. Jordan Price and Demetrius Henry added 20 combined points, and Tony Washington was outstanding as an energy big off the bench.

But the Explorers were also excellent defensively. They limited Rhode Island to 39 percent shooting overall and 35 percent from behind the arc.

The Rams didn’t come out with enough energy. They missed layups (including three in a row), struggled at the free throw line, had defensive breakdowns and E.C. Matthews went scoreless in the opening frame.

Dan Hurley was so frustrated with his team’s performance that he pulled his entire starting five less than a minute into the first half and implemented an entire new lineup.

“It was scary what we looked like today,” Hurley said. “I was scared. My teams don’t often look like that, flat and uninspired, and that has not happened since year one or year two when we were overmatched…We took a step back today.”

Regardless of Rhode Island’s performance, there’s no doubt that La Salle’s intensity and talent was a reason for Rhody’s issues on both ends of the floor. The Explorers looked like a veteran team that was hungry to earn a quality win on the road. They were composed throughout the second half despite the Rams’ full court press, and received multiple contributions from numerous different unexpected players.

The Explorers are an underrated, undervalued team in the Atlantic 10. They can score with any team in the league and they have improved defensively over the last few weeks. Also, they’re a team made up of players that transferred in from high quality programs. Price started his college career at Auburn, while Johnson started at Syracuse, Powell started at Memphis under Josh Pastner and Demetrius Henry played at South Carolina.

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Meanwhile, the Rams may be in deep trouble. They haven’t won a quality road game all season, have only one big time victory against Cincinnati and have now lost two straight Atlantic 10 games. If the Rams want to make the NCAA Tournament, they must do serious damage for the remainder of the regular season conference schedule, including beating Dayton at home. A win over VCU in their own building will certainly help as well, but with a performance like they showed on Thursday, they might not even have a chance at the NCAA Tournament in a couple of weeks.

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