Cold-shooting La Salle falls to Davidson in A-10 tourney

NEW YORK -

La Salle has been playing in the Atlantic 10 since 1995-96. During that time, the Explorers have won more than one game in the conference tournament exactly once. That was in 2002, the first of coach Billy Hahn's three seasons, when they beat Fordham and Temple at the Spectrum before getting sent home by Richmond in the semifinals.

Thursday night at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, in the last of the four second-round matchups, the Explorers had an opportunity to do it again, three years after they'd won three NCAA games in five days.

Twenty-four hours earlier, they'd won on the road for the first time since November, and for the first time against a Division I opponent since last season, by rolling past a Duquesne team that had torched them by 27 in late January.

That meant sixth-seeded Davidson was next up, coming off an opening bye. The Wildcats beat La Salle by 13 in North Carolina two months ago. They also eliminated the Explorers in the quarterfinals last March, by one on a shot at the buzzer, after La Salle led most of the way.

Did we mention that the Explorers - who finished last - were going for their fourth win in five games, which hadn't happened since they started out 4-1?

Instead, they'll have to turn in their uniforms for keeps, knowing that they at least played better at the end, despite an obvious manpower shortage, and that next season figures to be better with the addition of three transfers.

But this journey concluded with a 78-63 loss, and a 9-22 bottom line.

Maybe they just didn't have enough left to extend things one more step. Back-to-backers can do that.

"Winning's a big deal," coach John Giannini said. "I think we got better. I wish we'd won tonight. We gave great effort. (Davidson's) a good team.

"This was painful. Sometimes that happens. I'm beyond excited about next year. This will pay dividends. You just can see that in the future."

They were able to hang for a while, particularly at the defensive end. But it was 42-30 Davidson at the break, as the Wildcats (19-11) got 14 of the last 18 points in the closing four minutes.

Davidson didn't add to its total in the first six-plus minutes of the second half. Too bad La Salle scored only four itself.

The Explorers put up 88 against Duquesne, their most in the postseason since the 1991 NIT. They looked a whole lot fresher.

Junior Jordan Price accounted for 36 of those, one off his career best and the most by an Explorer in a conference tourney since Randy Woods in 1992 (MAAC). This time he finished with 23, on 5-for-22 shooting, 3-for-9 from the arc. He also had nine rebounds. And never came out. He needs more help.

"We learned basically what we could have been, if we'd played like (the way we did at the end) all year," Price said. "We didn't. That's not what the plan was . . . I just want to be there for my brothers."

Sophomore center Tony Washington had 16 on 10 shots, to go with 13 boards.

La Salle shot 33 percent, 29 from three.

Reflecting on the season overall, Giannini said: "I think we won some games down the stretch that were important to our momentum going forward. Even tonight, we fought awfully hard. Guys played a lot of minutes. That's going to make them much better.

"They stuck together, through a lot. The adversity didn't change them. If you're going to go through something like this, I couldn't think of a better group. They really did all they could."

Davidson, the school Steph Curry made famous, got 27 from center Peyton Aldridge, who went 9-for-15. Guard Brian Sullivan had 15, mostly from deep and most of it early. Backcourt partner Jack Gibbs, the A-10's top scorer, added nine, 15 below his average. But he came up with seven assists.

Davidson will now face third-seeded St. Bonaventure (22-7), which had a double bye, in Friday's quarters. At the moment, the Bonnies appear to be just on the good side of the ever-popular NCAA bubble.

kernm@phillynews.com

@mikekerndn