La Salle’s experience the difference against Cheltenham
GLENSIDE >> A sign of an experienced basketball team is the ability to keep playing its own pace despite the best efforts of the opposing team.
Sunday afternoon, with Cheltenham doing all it could to try and speed La Salle up, the Explorers never took the bait. Once they realized what the Panthers were up to, the Explorers let their experience pave the road for them, they took care of the ball and passed it until the right guy got it.
It added up to a 68-56 win over Cheltenham to wrap up the Arcadia Classic at Arcadia University.
“We had to make smart passes,” Explorers senior point guard Allen Powell said. “They wanted to speed us up, so we had to be strong with the ball.”
Cheltenham looked at the game as a test, but also a contest it planned to win. To that end, the Panthers were amped up at the start and their length and athletic burst did give La Salle some early issues, with Jalen Mickens flying into passing lanes for a couple steals, throwing down the second for an emphatic dunk.
After Zahree Harrison found Jaelen McGlone for a three and a 9-8 lead, the Explorers’ experience took over. Explorers coach Mike McKee is in his first season helming the squad, but he’s got a group that’s been through the ringer the last three years and knows what it has to do.
A 7-0 La Salle run following the McGlone 3-pointer helped the Explorers to a 21-15 lead after the first quarter.
“What we didn’t do was draw them to us to kick and at times, that left us a little stagnant,” Cheltenham coach Patrick Fleury said. “While we were driving, we weren’t necessarily looking for the kicks and because we weren’t scoring, that impacted what we did defensively. We kind of hurt ourselves with that, but it’s a good test for us and I’m glad we were able to see some of the things teams will try to do to us.”
The Explorers started four seniors on Sunday in Powell, Titus Beard, Zach Crisler and Konrad Kiszka as they improved to 10-0 on the season. It’s tough to win 10 straight games regardless of schedule, but La Salle put together a challenging nonleague slate to go with its first few PCL contests.
Powell, who’s played very well this season, led La Salle with 20 points while the Princeton-bound Kiszka scored 12.
Cheltenham hung around in the second, getting the lead down to 23-22 when Harrison found Kyin Healey off a drive-and-dish but the Explorers again responded. Keyed by their aggression on the boards, which included 13 offensive rebounds in the game, the Explorers closed the second quarter on a 10-0 run and led 33-22 at the break.
“Cheltenham was ready to go but once we settled down and tightened up our defense, we started taking care of the ball, spreading out and making good decisions and that was when the game changed,” McKee said. “Even when they wanted to try and get up and down and play at a faster pace, our ball handling and decision making continued to come through for us.
“(Harrison) is really a good player, so trying to contain is the message of the day. As long as you keep your body in front and make sure he sees more than one white jersey, from there you start trusting your teammates having help behind you and it makes things a little easier.”
After using the first half to build their lead, the Explorers used the second half to keep building on it. Kiszka hammered down a two-handed dunk midway through the third, putting La Salle up 43-30 and the Explorers closed the frame leading 48-35.
The 6-foot-7 senior added an exclamation point in the fourth, stepping around a defender to flush a one-handed jam for a 64-42 lead and finishing a 6-of-7 shooting night.
“When we slow down and see the court, it lets us make better passes,” Kiszka said. “Once we see everyone sharing the ball, it carries down to everyone else. They were trying to speed us up a lot, so we focused on grabbing rebounds and slowing down the tempo.”
Cheltenham was paced by 17 points from Harrison and 12 from McGlone, who flashed his athleticism on a number of occasions including a third-quarter putback dunk. The Panthers end 2018 with a 6-3 record and while they’ve had some solid outings, they’re not satisfied yet with where they are.
“We have to go back to the drawing board and fix some of the things we do so we understand how to work and get the next man open,” Fleury said. “Togetherness is the biggest thing, our history is a good history but for us, we’re trying to understand what’s a good shot and what’s a great shot and becoming better at giving up a good shot for a great shot.
“There’s more than half the season left and we’re looking to be better in February than we are in January.”
Powell said the eight seniors on the La Salle roster are trying to make this their best year. While the 6A classification in the PCL is always tough, the Explorers want to get to the Palestra and by extension, secure the bid to states that’s eluded them the last three seasons.
La Salle enters 2019 undefeated, but they’ll be greeted by a major test right out of the gates with a matchup against 10-0 Bishop McDevitt in a PCL game on Jan. 4. Many of the Royal Lancers, who edged Sankofa Freedom 47-45 at Arcadia earlier Sunday, stuck around to watch the nightcap.
“Our guys are playing hungry and aggressive,” McKee said. “They’re working together on defense and they’re good enough players to do those types of things. The reality is they’ve been through plenty of battles and it’s prepared them for some of these environments.”
LA SALLE 21 12 15 20 – 68
CHELTENHAM 15 7 13 21 – 56
L: Allen Powell 7 3-3 20, Titus Beard 1 4-4 7, Konrad Kiszka 6 0-0 12, Jake Timby 2 0-0 6, Zach Crisler 2 1-1 5, Khalil Diarrah 3 2-4 9, Sam Brown 1 1-2 3, Emmanuel Freyere 2 0-0 4, Brian Cawley 0 2-2 2, Joe Dempsey 0 0-1 0. Totals: 24 13-17 68
C: Zahree Harrison 6 2-2 17, Jalen Mickens 2 0-2 4, Tim Myarick 2 2-2 8, Jaelen McGlone 5 0-0 12, Kyin Healey 4 0-0 8, Mike McClain 1 0-1 2, Justin Moore 0 1-2 1, Sutton 2 0-0 4. Totals: 22 5-9 56
3-pointers: L – Powell 3, Timby 2, Beard, Diarrah; C – Harrison 3, Myarick 2, McGlone 2
