La Salle's big men dominate as Explorers top St. Francis-Brooklyn
Steve Zack, Jerrell Wright score big in paint as La Salle improves to 4-0; Jordan Price scores 30.
LA SALLE used its height advantage over St. Francis-Brooklyn to its full benefit.
The Explorers' starting frontcourt of 6-11 Steve Zack and 6-8 Jerrell Wright was taller than any Saint Francis player.
Wright hit a layup in the game's second minute to put La Salle up, 2-0, and the Explorers (4-0) never relinquished the lead in a 73-60 win last night at Tom Gola Arena.
Wright saw the duo's size as a major factor in the win.
"Steve's actually bigger than everyone in the A-10, basically," he said, laughing. "I'm an undersized power forward, but I'm way stronger than most of the big men we play against."
Wright controlled the paint throughout the first half, bullying the Terriers' big men and totaling a game-high 12 first-half points on a variety of lefthanded hooks and spin moves down in the low post.
The goggle-wearing power forward was able to finish with a near double-double at 19 points and nine rebounds. His frontcourt partner was able to one-up him, as Zack posted a double-double with 14 points and 12 rebounds.
La Salle coach John Giannini made an effort to get the two bigs the ball down low, acknowledging that it's always a focus to get Wright and Zack scoring opportunities in the paint against St. Francis (0-4).
"Coach G knows the bigs can score inside," Wright said. "Me and Steve have been working all summer to try to score the ball inside."
Jordan Price the reigning Big 5 Player of the Week, didn't disappoint, either. The redshirt sophomore shouldered the scoring load in the second half, putting up 19 points in the final 20 minutes and finishing with 30 to lead all scorers. His 10-for-17 shooting included 4-for-7 on three-pointers; he also made all six of his free throws.
His 30 points are the most for an Explorer since Ramon Galloway, another La Salle transfer who was part of the 2013 Sweet 16 squad, who dropped 31 against VCU on Jan. 26, 2013. Price is now averaging 16.8 points per game in this young season.
"Jordan didn't try to will the ball into the basket," Giannini said. "Those are not herculean-effort plays. Those are talent plays and confidence plays, and I know his talent and I know his confidence.
"What I like is seven assists and six rebounds. What I want to know is if you're more than a scorer. Tonight, for this one night, he was really an outstanding player, because he did pretty much everything outstandingly well. And that's my challenge to Jordan and my team."
La Salle now heads to Brooklyn for the Barclays Center Classic this weekend and a Friday matchup against No. 8 Virginia.
From there on out, the gantlet of the season continues, as the Explorers take on City 6 rivals Villanova (ranked 12th), Temple and Drexel in three consecutive games to begin December.
"Obviously, we're stepping up in class a little bit here," Giannini said about the Explorers' schedule. "We're going from teams that are going to be good in their conference to teams that are going to be good on the national level right now. And that's what we've aspired to."