PHILADELPHIA – John Giannini had seen his team get beat on the boards enough, especially his big men. So with his team holding a good lead, the La Salle mentor sent them a message at halftime about it.
“He just snapped on us, told us he’s tired of us getting out-rebounded,” sophomore point guard Tyreek Duren said. “I think today we had to change that.”
Consider the message received. As part of an 82-70 win over Rider in the Philly Hoop Group Classic on Saturday night, the Explorers turned up the effort on the glass in the second half and wound up out-rebounding the Broncs by a 40-33 margin.
“Our big guys at halftime had a combined three rebounds,” Giannini noted. “Our four big guys had one defensive rebound.”
The Explorers don’t have quite the frontcourt they had last year. Aaric Murray, who was very talented but also a headache, is long gone, as are a couple of other contributors. That means new faces have to emerge in the frontcourt and holdovers have to improve. Thus far it has shown, as the Explorers entered Saturday’s game being out-rebounded by more than six per game, and that included Robert Morris doing that a night earlier in handing them a defeat.
Saturday night showed that offense shouldn’t be a concern for this team, although they did see a key player get hurt. The Explorers shot 48.5 percent from the field, including 7-12 on three-pointers, in the first half, and while the numbers weren’t as good in the second half they were not threatened. Earl Pettis had his way early on, scoring 11 points in eight minutes before a finger injury ended his night early.
With Pettis out, it was players like Ramon Galloway (21 points, eight rebounds) and Devon White (17 points) who shined in the scoring column. Galloway was in just his second game back after a concussion shelved him for three games, and played easily his best game in a La Salle uniform a night after he scored eight points and had just one rebound in a loss to Robert Morris. White had seven rebounds against Rider and leads the team in that category, but could be better. More to the point, players like Jerrell Wright and Steven Zack need to improve in that category if they’re going to be counted on to play good minutes.
In Friday’s game, the Explorers got pounded on the glass by a 45-30 margin. Couple that with the first-half margin on Saturday, and it’s understandable that Giannini was frustrated with the lack of effort on the glass at halftime.
Giannini said his team isn’t 100 percent right now, noting that D.J. Peterson was under the weather in addition to Galloway being in his second game back from the concussion. But they had to go with the players they had available for the game, and the ones he had are very capable. There’s also no reason his guards should lead the team in rebounding the way they did in the first half of Saturday’s game.
Duren, one of the guards who led the team in rebounding in the first half of Saturday’s game, is a big reason why this team can be very good. The sophomore point guard has played a lot of minutes but is vital to this team, as evidenced by his team-high numbers in scoring and assists. He had just nine points on Saturday, but his eight assists and two turnovers to go with seven rebounds did plenty.
“Outstanding point guards are not easy to find,” said Giannini. “I think everyone that likes La Salle is pretty comfortable when he has the ball in his hands. I know I feel really good with the ball in his hands.”
Duren and Pettis give the Explorers one of the best scoring backcourt duos in the country. That’s a pretty good starting point, and if Galloway’s performance on Saturday night is any indication, scoring won’t be a problem for this team. The question will be if they can rebound well enough to win, and on Saturday night, they started on that path in the second half.
