La Salle snaps skid, tops Reading

At the end of a winding hallway, the La Salle players entered an Archbishop Carroll classroom that would suffice as a locker room and took notice of the notes jotted on the board by coach Joe Dempsey.

After the Explorers lost their last two games, Dempsey feared that his players would come out complacent and lack the hunger he saw them develop throughout the season.

One of the keys of the game was "outwork them," he wrote, and it seemed to hit a chord with the Explorers. They ground out a 57-55 victory over Reading High in front of a vocal crowd Saturday in the first round of the PIAA Class AAAA state playoffs.

The Explorers' grittiest worker seemed to be 6-foot-6, 250-pound forward Brennan Woods, who constantly battled with Reading's taller forwards. Woods scored 10 points, including seven in the third quarter, and grabbed eight rebounds.

"Overall, it's all about the team. Everyone has their role. It doesn't matter about scoring for me," Woods said.

Early in the third quarter, the Explorers seemed to ease their grip on the game as Reading went on a 5-0 run and took their first lead since midway through the second period.

Woods then answered back. He used his stocky frame to grab an offensive rebound and score strong on a putback while being fouled, and emphatically pumped his fist as the ball went through the net to give the Explorers a 27-26 lead.

"We kept our confidence and stayed together to pull out the win," Woods said.

On the offensive side, the Explorers leaned on the up-tempo play of senior guard Eddie Mitchell, a La Salle University recruit who scored a team-high 19 points.

With 38.6 seconds left, Mitchell gave the Explorers a five-point lead as glided for a one-handed, fastbreak dunk from the left wing after a steal by guard Kevin Piotrowicz.

"They've seen me dunk enough times to know that we need to stay in the game and get back on defense and look at it as another play," Mitchell said. "We needed to keep our composure and stay poised and get the win."

Reading then hit two foul shots and an inside layup to climb to within one, before Mitchell knocked down 1 of 2 foul shots. The Red Knights then missed a potential game-winning three-pointer and potential tying putback at the buzzer.

"This time of the year is mentally exhausting for kids, and you really had to wonder if they were going to bounce back. And they did," Dempsey said of his players. "That's a testament to their character."

La Salle   10111719-57

Reading   1082017-55

L: Joe Brown 13, Eddie Mitchell 19, Mike Poncia 6, Amar Stukes 9, Brennan Woods 10.

R: Jalan Branford 18, Delvon Brown 15, Lamondre Burge 8, Anthony Clay 5, Taeshan Huffman 2, Quincy Scott-Key 2, Demerick Weglinski 5.