La Salle drops 6th in a row

LA SALLE uses fewer bench minutes than all but two teams (Hofstra, Syracuse) in the country. This was not Explorers coach John Giannini's plan in November, but it has become his reality - with injuries, illness and three transfers sitting out the season.

The reasons this team has not won since Nov. 28 at Rowan go beyond the lack of depth. There is also rebounding and defense.

A new year brings conference play and a second chance. La Salle, starting four guards and Tony Washington, along with sixth man, a k a the bench, Karl Harris, played far better than it did during December in its Atlantic 10 opener Sunday at Gola Arena against Massachusetts. In the end, it was not quite good enough to stop a five-game losing streak from becoming a six-game streak, UMass winning, 74-67.

"I'm always proud of our guys and I'm proud of our effort today," Giannini said. "They just made some more shots, got a few more loose balls and a few more rebounds. They were just a little bit better. I told our guys that if each of our guys could have made a play better . . . "

For the first 18 minutes, La Salle, switching defenses and taking high-value shots, had some control and led by eight points. UMass, however, scored the final 10 points of the half to get to the break with a 42-40 lead. It was a momentum shift that changed the feel of the game.

"Defensive breakdowns, not getting back," said Jordan Price, La Salle's leading scorer. "They got a couple of layups."

Giannini definitely felt that the game was altered in those final first-half moments.

"The end of the first half, the momentum went from strongly in our favor to neutral," he said. "We didn't feel bad, but it became more of a 50-50 type game."

UMass (8-5, 1-0 A-10) got the lead for good with 10 minutes left and nursed it to the wire. The Minutemen are not going to dazzle anybody with their defense either, but they did crush La Salle on the glass, 47-31, and do have firepower, their three top scorers combining for nearly 53 points per game. The best of the scorers, Trey Davis, went over 1,000 career points late in the first half and was a tough cover all game, finishing with 18 points.

The bench scoring was 18-6 for UMass, the second-chance points 15-6. Those were a direct result of the depth issue and the rebounding issue.

"We're going to get better and better until we're the kind of team that we want to be," Giannini said. "When that happens, how soon, how soon, how late, I don't know. I know for a fact better than I know anything in my life it's going to happen, absolutely going to happen; when, I'm not sure."

La Salle (4-7, 0-1 A-10) also has some firepower with Price (23 points). Washington had a double double (11 points, 10 rebounds). They just don't have quite enough firepower or, at this stage, enough of anything else.

"These guys are good players," Giannini said of Price and Washington. "They just need some help. Frankly, we know we have the help, but we don't want to wait until next year. We want to win now, but whether it's this year or next year, they will have the help they need to be a very good team."

It is not likely to be this year. Rohan Brown just had meniscus surgery and is out for a while. Yevgen Sakhniuk has been ill for some time.

"Listen, we're under no delusions that we're a good team," Giannini said, "but we do believe that we can win games."

But, if they don't, there is always this.

"Of course losing is frustrating," Giannini said. "I thought we would have more talent and be deeper, but we don't. This is a Dick Bennett saying: You recruit kids you think you can win with, which I did, but he said it's equally important to recruit guys you could lose with who won't quit, who won't get down."

That theory is being tested right now at 20th and Olney.

On Twitter: @DickJerardi