La Salle notes: Pettis has fractured finger
La Salle senior guard Earl Pettis has a dislocated left middle finger and will see a team doctor on Monday, according to team spokesman Kevin Bonner.
After intercepting a pass, Pettis went coast-to-coast on a layup and was fouled by Rider's Eddie Mitchell with 14 minutes, 6 seconds left in the first half of La Salle's 82-70 win on Saturday afternoon at The Palestra. Immediately after the bucket, Pettis collapsed to the arena floor clutching his hand.
A television replay showed that Pettis had actually injured the hand on the steal and he dribbled the length of the court before noticing his finger was dislocated.
After the injury, Pettis was taken to the hospital for x-rays.
On Saturday night Pettis' posted a photo of the finger on his Twitter account (@pettis23). Here's a link to the photo: http://twitpic.com/7kdlae .
And they're off. Head coach John Giannini said he tells his team to be like thoroughbreds as he wants them to start games "fast out of the game."
Saturday's win was an example of that, as the Explorers jumped out to a quick 10-0 lead. The 45 points scored before the break was more than they scored in their 51-44 loss to Robert Morris on Saturday.
"When you open a gate with a thoroughbred, it runs out. You don't have to push it out," said Giannini. "…We don't want to be the kind of donkey type of animal that you have to keep pushing out."
Familiar faces. For the second straight season, sophomore guard Tyreek Duren faced off against his high school teammate, Rider forward Danny Stewart.
The two were teammates at Neumann-Goretti and captured the 2010 PIAA State title as seniors with a 30-1 record. Both were also named first-team All Catholic. Saints head coach, Carl Arrigale, sat behind the Rider bench on Saturday.
"It's always fun, to play against someone you played with since you were young," said Stewart, who finished Saturday with 22 points and seven rebounds.
Along with Stewart, the Broncs feature seven other players from Philadelphia area-high schools. Freshman forward Junior Fortunat (Roman Catholic) has not been cleared yet by the NCAA due to a lagging issue with his status as a foreign student. He is from Montreal.
Notes. Next up for the Explorers is Northeastern on Wednesday night at Tom Gola Arena…Devon White leads the Atlantic 10 with 26 personal fouls…Duren is third in the conference with 30 assists…Duren averaged 21.3 points per game in the season's first three games and has averaged just 7.6 in the last three. But, as his points drop his rebounds and assists have risen…Freshman guard D.J. Peterson battled food poisoning on Friday and Giannini said he still wasn't 100-percent on Saturday.
Contact staff writer Matt Breen at mbreen@phillynews.com or @matt_breen on Twitter.