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Explorers defenseless in loss to Blue Devils

SOMETIMES YOU just get outplayed. That was the case on Sunday afternoon at Tom Gola Arena, where Central Connecticut State put together a gutsy performance to top La Salle, 81-74.

SOMETIMES YOU just get outplayed. That was the case on Sunday afternoon at Tom Gola Arena, where Central Connecticut State put together a gutsy performance to top La Salle, 81-74.

After allowing the Explorers to blow them out of their own gym last December by 26, the Blue Devils seemed hell-bent on revenge, sprinting out of the gates to 20-9 lead. La Salle spent the entire game clawing back and even went ahead briefly in the second half, but the Blue Devils offense proved too relentless.

"They're such a proud program that they probably watched that tape from last year quite a bit, because they came out breathing fire," said La Salle coach John Giannini.

"That was a good team we lost to today. Anyone who makes those shots and plays with the tenacity that they did, you have to tip your hat to them."

La Salle struggled on the defensive end of the floor for much of the game. In the first half, Central Connecticut shot 55.9 percent from the field, scoring 48 points. LaSalle was able to knot the score at 74 with 2 minutes left in the game, but the Blue Devils closed it out with a 7-0 run.

"We like to try and pressure, we think we're pretty quick, but we couldn't pressure them at all," Giannini said. "We had to back off our pressure and they jumped out to a good lead."

In the early going, Giannini was his usual animated self on the sidelines, as Central Connecticut seemed to score at will. Trailing by only four at the half, the Explorers were much improved on defense in the second half.

"We never stopped talking about defense," Giannini said, when asked what he told his team in the locker room. "We don't change or tell them anything unusual or unique or anything they haven't heard before. They've heard all the same things. I really thought, in the first half, we couldn't have played much worse. And I thought we were still in pretty good shape."

Kyle Vinales led Central Connecticut in scoring with 23 points, but the most valuable Blue Devil on Sunday was sophomore point guard Malcolm McMillian, who totaled 10 points, seven rebounds, six assists and most important, zero turnovers.

Behind McMillian, the Blue Devils offense was a model of efficiency, shooting 48.4 percent from the field and 50 percent from three-point range. They hung with the larger Explorers on the boards and only turned the ball over seven times.

"It was completely not La Salle basketball," said senior Ramon Galloway, who had 15 points for the Explorers. "It was nothing we preach. It was nothing we abide by. It was nothing we follow. We're a defensive team. We kind of forgot our identity in the first half."

Central Connecticut made a lot of tough shots, but they also got a lot of easy ones in transition. While Giannini stood up for the defensive effort of his players, Galloway implied that there was something missing on that end of the court throughout.

"I love defense," Galloway said. "To be honest with you, a lot of those shot weren't tough. They had a lot of layups. We just weren't talking enough in transition."

La Salle also had success on offense, which was really the only way they stayed in the game. Beyond Galloway's 15, promising sophomore forward Jerrell Wright had 18 points and junior guard Sam Mills had 16.

Typical of La Salle teams in recent years, the Explorers continued to live and die with the three-pointer. Shooting at a 40.6 percent clip from long range last season, LaSalle's 21 wins were the most the program has had since the 1989-90 campaign.

But it proved to be a double-edged sword on Sunday. Seven first half threes kept the Explorers within striking distance, but only two fell in the second half. In all, La Salle launched 28 shots from deep despite having a noticeable size advantage.

"Today it didn't seem like it was falling too much," Galloway said. "The three-point shot helps out a lot in basketball. You hit two threes, you go up by six. If you miss them, you live and die by them."

Nevertheless, more than just a couple of threes separated these two teams on Sunday.

"I don't think it had nothing to do with offense," Galloway said. "We're going to shoot threes and we're going to play the way we play. It was more defense."