La Salle’s 3-point shooting buries St. Elizabeth in Nelson Classic
CHESTER >> Jump shooting is an essential yet often fickle aspect in basketball. Throughout the course of the season teams will have games where it shoots the ball outstandingly and others not so much.
For La Salle in Friday’s game against St. Elizabeth (Del.) it was the former. The Explorers knocked down 13 three pointers in 80-58 rout in the Pete and Jameer Nelson Classic at Widener University.
“The kids shot the ball well,” La Salle coach Joe Dempsey said. “I told a couple of the guys, we’ve had good practices, that’s where it is. We’ve been practicing hard and better and when you work on your shot hard, it tends to pay off maybe later down the road.”
La Salle came right out of the gate firing, scoring 22 points in the opening frame, including two three-pointers from Sean Simon, who finished with a game-high five threes and a game-best 20 points.
The Explorers finished with three scorers in double-figures — Simon, Zach Crisler (15) and Konrad Kiszka (10). La Salle often turns to different sources for scoring as exemplified by Friday’s performance.
“For us it’s all about sharing it, keeping good spacing on the floor and not caring who takes the shot,” Dempsey said. “I think if you can sell that to high school kids, the ball moves, you’re harder to play and the kids are buying in right now.”
On the defensive end, the Explorers did allow a few easy lane entries, however they did a good job contesting layup opportunities from the athletic Viking guards as St Elizabeth did not want to try to match jump shots with the Explorers.
“We got to take more pride in keeping people out of the lane,” Dempsey said. “The three-point shot is obviously a big part in today’s game so we got to make sure we don’t get in the habit of just trading two for three with people because if the three point shot isn’t going you got to have other ways to score and you got to have people defend.”
La Salle looks to capture whatever magic it had Friday afternoon as it looks forward to a very challenging Philadelphia Catholic League schedule.
“I told the guys our record is 0-0 now,” Dempsey said. “We start Catholic League (play) and in our league that’s all that matters. In District 12, it’s all that matters. (The non-league games) its just there to make you better.”
La Salle 80, St. Elizabeth (Del.) 58
La Salle 22 23 25 10—80
St Elizabeth 11 15 18 14—58
La Salle: Allen Powell 4 0-0 9; Jarrod Stukes 1 0-0 2; Konrad Kiszka 5 0-0 10; Matt Paulus 2 0-0 6; Matt McMahon 3 0-0 8; Zach Crisler 7 0-0 15; Luke Baldini 1 0-0 3; Sean Simon 6 3-3 20; Jack Rothenberg 2 0-0 5; Totals 32 3-3 80.
St. Elizabeth: Jordan Brown 1 0-1 2; Elijah Dockerty 2 0-0 4; Nathan Thomas 3 6-6 13; Jordan Money 8 0-1 19; Eric Hicks 1 0-0 2; Justin Money 0 4-4 4; Guy DeBonaventura 1 0-0 2; Matthew Shields 1 0-0 2; Ryan Hockenbrock 1 0-0 2; David Hazelton 3 2-2 8; Totals 21 12-14 58.
Three-point goals: Powell, Paulus 2, McMahon 2, Crisler, Baldini, Simon 5, Rothenberg, Thomas, Jordan Money 3
