Inept Explorers fall to Richmond and earn wrath of Giannini

All John Giannini could do was bob his head sarcastically after Johnny Shuler's pass was tipped and intercepted with less than two minutes left Saturday. He had nothing left to say, which was unusual for someone who is normally so animated on the sideline.

However, after La Salle's 64-52 loss to Richmond at Tom Gola Arena, he minced no words.

"Without exaggeration, it looked like we had not played basketball before. It looked like someone sent the wrestling team," Giannini said.

Scoring only seven points in the final 10 minutes of a game this late in a season will make a coach say things like that. And it might not have been just the lack of scoring; it was the way the Explorers could not score that was perplexing to the La Salle coach.

The Explorers (13-10, 7-5 Atlantic Ten) turned the ball over a season-high 23 times, leading to 26 points for the Spiders. Each Explorer who checked into the game turned the ball over at least once.

"I'm astounded at how poorly we played on an individual level," Giannini said. "We couldn't dribble, pass, or shoot. It looked like we had never played basketball before. I think Richmond set a tone of aggressiveness on defense that we just didn't respond to."

The only Explorer to have reasonable success was B.J. Johnson, who scored 18 points, but on just 7-for-17 shooting. No other La Salle player hit double figures.

Perhaps the Explorer most affected by Richmond's defense was second-leading scorer Jordan Price. He could manage only one bucket in the game, but that basket gave the team life.

After the Explorers put themselves in a hole early in the second half, Price buried a shot from deep that sparked an 11-0 Explorers run to tie the score with just over 10 minutes remaining. It felt as if La Salle had turned a corner, but the run did not last.

La Salle managed just seven points the rest of the way, sending the Explorers to their fifth loss in their last seven games. Three of those points were from a late, garbage-time three by Shuler.

The Spiders (15-9, 9-3 A-10) got a big performance from T.J. Cline, who had a game-high 21 points on 9-for-13 shooting. He also chipped in eight rebounds and was stellar on defense.

Richmond went into Saturday as 15th in the nation in three-point defense. The Spiders improved on that number, holding La Salle to 4 for 20 from beyond the arc. No Explorer hit more than one three on the day.

Now, Giannini needs to figure out what exactly went wrong before the Explorers head to Upstate New York to play St. Bonaventure on Wednesday. If nothing else, Giannini came to one big realization Saturday.

"We're not necessarily the toughest team in the world," he said with a sigh.