Brown’s 22 points help La Salle top Pittsburgh Central Catholic in overtime
SPRINGFIELD >> Sam Brown came close to give the La Salle boys basketball team a win at the buzzer.
Rising up in the lane, Brown grabbed Nix Varano’s inbounds lob with 0.6 seconds left and before coming down got up a shot that bounced off the rim, sending Monday night’s contest against Pittsburgh Central Catholic to overtime.
“Almost,” Brown said. “That’s just something Coach (Mike) McKee drew up. We haven’t worked on that in practice at all.”
The Explorers, however, made sure they did not regret just missing in the final moments of regulation. Varano hit a pair of clutch 3-pointers in the extra session as La Salle shook off a slow start in the first half to beat the visiting Vikings 68-61 in the La Salle Holiday Tournament.
“The energy on defense – we picked it up,” said Brown, a senior who has signed to play football at Rutgers. “We’ve been working on that a lot in practice, the past few games that’s what we lacked, our energy. So we knew that we had to pick it up this game and that’s what we did.”
Brown was one of four Explorers that scored in double figures, collecting 13 of his team-high 22 points in the final 20 minutes as La Salle (4-2) snapped a two-game losing skid.
Horace Simmons finished with 17 points – 11 after halftime – while Varano and Chris Williams each added 12 points. Ten of La Salle’s 20 field goals were 3-pointers with Simmons and Varano each connecting three times beyond the arc.
“It feels good coming especially off the loss to Reading and Penn Charter,” Brown said. “They were tough ones. We played some tough teams with some good players but we knew we had to bounce back and come back from that and that’s what we did this game. Central Catholic, they were a really good team, No. 11 (Dante DePante) is a good player and we just fought and battled.”
Varano had just two field goals in the first four quarters but stayed confident in his shooting and buried a 3-pointer from the right wing off a Simmons assist in overtime to put the Explores up 60-57.
After Dante DePante’s jumper with foot on the 3-point line had Central Catholic within 60-59, Varano took a pass from Chris Shields and drained another triple, giving La Salle a 63-59 advantage.
“I was shooting them in the first half but they weren’t going in but I always have the mentality of keep shooting, never get down on myself, always forget the last miss,” Varano said. “Just keep shooting, cause my team needs me to shoot if we’re going to be successful.
“But also got to remember not to forget about other parts of my game when I’m missing shots like I feel like I passed pretty well tonight, I had a decent amount of assists.”
Varano grabbed a rebound off a missed Vikings 3-pointer and got the ball to Brown, who was fouled and hit two free throws with 45.6 seconds. Simmons was fouled after his steal and made one at the line for a 66-59 lead with 31.6 seconds left.
DePante scored a game-high 24 points for Pittsburgh Central Catholic, half of that coming in the fourth including two on a baseline floater that tied the game at 55 with 2:02 remaining.
“He’s unreal,” said Varano of DePante. “I felt like we were playing good defense on him, he was just hitting pull-up threes from NBA (range) and like those floaters and fades and stuff. Nothing we could really do about that.”
Still even at 55, Brown came up big on defense after a Central Catholic inbounds, pinning an interior shot on the backboard for a block at 1:10 then collecting the ball to give La Salle a chance to go ahead.
“They set a pick for Number 11 (DePante) and originally I was going to go out, go off and stay with him,” Brown said.” But we had the switch so I stayed on 33 (Langston Moses). First I thought he was going to get the layup cause he was wide open but I try to get the best block I can and that’s what I did.”
La Salle held the ball then called time out with 13.6 seconds. An Explorers’ 3-pointer was short but the ball caromed off the Vikings, giving La Salle one more chance with 0.6 seconds – Brown’s try off Varano’s inbounds pass would not fall and the teams needed four more minutes to figure out a winner.
Debaba Tshiebwe had 14 points for Pittsburgh Central Catholic while Payton Wehner scored all 10 of his points in the first quarter. The Vikings face Malvern Prep 4 p.m. Tuesday at La Salle while the Explorers host Malvern 5:30 p.m. Wednesday in the tournament finale.
Wehner grabbed an offensive rebound then banked in a jumper to beat the first-quarter buzzer to put Central Catholic up 19-9.
A DePante 3-pointer and two Jaden Bailey free throws gave the Vikings their largest lead at 26-14 with 4:29 left in the second quarter. But La Salle ended the half on a 9-0 run – consecutive threes from Brown and Simmons making it 26-23 at the break.
“We were kind of playing soft in the first half and Coach was just preaching toughness,” Varano said. “He knew the shots would start to fall in the second half cause we got talent so he was just we got to be tougher, grab the ball with two hands, get loose balls, stuff like that. If we did that, we knew we’d win.”
In the third, Simmons’ 3-pointer pulled La Salle level at 32 while Brown drove down the lane for two and a 34-32 lead – LaSalle’s first since it was 3-1.
Brady Julinski’s putback made it 34-34 but a Varano foul-line jumper had the Explorers back in front while Williams’ three-point play at 1:25 put the home side up 39-35.
A Varano trey had La Salle leading 42-37 before DePante found Julinski inside to get within 42-39 entering the fourth.
Two Williams free throws 24 seconds into the final quarter put La Salle back up five but DePante would not let the Explorers pull away – his second 3-pointer of the period cutting the margin to 46-45 with a Tshiebwe basket inside giving Central Catholic a one-point edge.
A Simmons free throw made 47-47 at 5:35 before DePante scored on a drive and was fouled 10 seconds later. Simmons went back to the line at 5:21 and hit both ends of a 1-and-1 to tie things at 49 before DePante hit a jumper in traffic.
Williams gave La Salle a 52-51 lead with a 3-pointer off a Simmons assist but Moses’ basket inside had the Vikings back up by one. Brown grabbed an offensive rebound, scored on a tough scooping finish and drew the foul – making the and-one to put the Explorers ahead 55-53 with 2:39 remaining.
After the teams traded steals, DePante dropped in a floater from the left side to knot the contest at 55.
Brown began overtime by hitting a jumper in the lane. Central Catholic answered with a Tshiebwe basket before Varano’s three gave the Explorers the lead for good.
La Salle 68, Pittsburgh Central Catholic 61
Pittsburgh Central Catholic 19 7 13 16 6 – 61
La Salle 9 14 19 13 13 – 68
Pittsburgh Central Catholic: Dante DePante 10 1-3 24; Debaba Tshiebwe 6 2-2 14; Payton Wehner 4 0-0 10; Jaden Bailey 1 2-4 4; Brady Julinski 2 0-0 4; Langston Moses 2 0-0 4; Randy Wilkerson 0 1-3 1; Totals 25 6-12.
La Salle: Sam Brown 8 4-5 22; Horace Simmons 4 6-8 17; Nix Varano 4 1-2 12; Chris Williams 3 5-5 12; Joe Shields 1 0-0 3; Tim Jennings 0 2-2 2; Totals 20 18-22 68.
3-pointers: DePante 3; Wehner 2; L-Simmons 3, Varano 3, Brown 2, Shields, Williams.
