La Salle and Saint Joseph's tip off at Hagan Arena on Monday. (Photo: Aaron Bracy)
By AARON BRACY
January 15, 2024
Big5Hoops.com
PHILADELPHIA – Jhamir Brickus clutched a white towel hard against his face, having taken an unintentional blow from Erik Reynolds II 1 1/2 minutes into the game.
Brickus, La Salle’s talented point guard, wiped off the blood, pushed aside the pain and returned to the court just 1:08 later.
Unfortunately for the under-manned Explorers, already without third-leading scorer Anwar Gill, Saint Joseph’s sprinted to nine points to La Salle’s zero in that short time span.
It was all part of a dominating start for the talented Hawks, who finally found the W column in the Atlantic 10 on Monday afternoon after starting league play with three straight defeats.
St. Joe’s 82, La Salle 62.
The Explorers, already short on depth and size, were at a big disadvantage with Gill and a huge disadvantage without him. If this were a heavyweight fight, that bloodied Brickus towel might have been thrown into the center of the court after the Hawks raced to a 19-2 lead 6 ½ minutes into the contest.
To their credit, as you’d expect from tough competitors like Brickus and any Fran Dunphy-led team, La Salle kept on fighting. Brickus shoved cotton up his nose and exchanged his blood-stained No. 2 jersey for a no-name No. 30.
“He’s never going to stop playing and giving you everything he’s got,” Dunphy said.
La Salle played on.
Played hard.
Played tough.
The Hawks were just too big, too strong and too good.
La Salle was able to get as close as within eight points in the second half, but you never really had the feeling the Explorers could make a real game of it being short-handed already and now with Brickus slowed a bit – unless maybe La Salle assistants John Cox and Donnie Carr, who combined for 3,607 college points, could have slipped into Dunphy’s rotation without anyone knowing.
The Explorers just had too much to contend with, due to injuries and lack of depth, against a Hawks team that has all of the pieces to land atop the Atlantic 10 come mid-March. They are good enough to get a line on Joe Lunardi’s final bracket. Their disappointing beginning to league play sapped any chances of an NCAA at-large bid. Still, this team is good enough to win the conference title.
That, of course, is months away. For now, you saw the talent on display against the Explorers.
There was Christ Essandoko muscling his way to layups inside and finding teammates with perfect passes outside.
There was Xzayvier Brown continuing his fantastic freshman campaign, with deadly-accurate 3-point shooting and an all-around smart game.
There was Reynolds II with his fast-twitch game, driving the lane and launching 3’s with success.
There were contributions from up and down a Hawks lineup that can play with anyone in the Atlantic 10.
The only thing that really could stop St. Joe’s yesterday was when the lights went out with 14:56 to play and the Hawks up 11.
“It feels great,” Reynolds said. “Every team in the A-10 is good. It’s going to be a tough battle every time we step out. The theme of us is we have to earn these things. I feel like we came out and earned it today.”
The games will be tougher for the Hawks, including the rematch at La Salle in a few weeks when the Explorers likely will be fully healthy.
This game was about regaining their mojo, getting back the winning feeling they clutched so often in the nonconference season and showing that, yes, they are going to be one of the heavyweights in the Atlantic 10 this season.
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Aaron Bracy has been covering Philadelphia sports since 1996. His byline regularly appears on Associated Press stories. Big5Hoops.com is his second website dedicated to Philadelphia college basketball. Follow Bracy on X: @Aaron_Bracy and like his Facebook and Instagram pages.