Howard leads cheers as La Salle makes some winning noise
PHILADELPHIA » Ashley Howard has walked into the Daskalakis Athletic Center untold hundreds of times in his life. As an undergrad at Drexel, an assistant coach as his alma mater, at Big 5 coaching stops, 33rd and Market has been one the focal points of the young coach’s orbit.
On Saturday, in his third meeting with the Dragons as the head coach of La Salle, on what would’ve been a prime weekend slot for two Philly fan bases to generate some early-season excitement …
“It felt like practice in here today,” Howard said. “Walked in here, I’ve been in this gym a million times, and it just feels like practice or a scrimmage.”
His Explorers didn’t play like it was a scrimmage, even if execution wasn’t abundant on either end of a 58-48 La Salle victory. Given the challenges of 2020, there’s no use crying over spilled ambience, just another reality everyone has had to adapt to. Whether the building is as familiar as a second home or not, the task falls to teams to provide their energy, the tarps with student sections printed on them and obligatory cardboard cutouts not supplying much.
So there was Howard, after seeing his Explorers’ 18-point lead halved to nine at the break, with his mask on early in the second half, exhorting his bench with a “DE-FENSE” chant, an assistant designated to keep the reserves clapping and stomping along.
Whether the noise emanating from one end of the gym’s cozy confines helped constrain Drexel to 33.3 percent shooting (18-for-54) or aided in clamping down on leading scorer Camren Wynter, it was hard to say. But it certainly didn’t hurt.
“In the games, it really shows you how connected you are,” Howard said. “One of the things that we wanted to do is we want to manufacture our own energy. You don’t have a crowd, you don’t have the normal atmosphere, so now we’ve got to create that own energy for ourselves. The first couple of games, we haven’t done a great job with that. But today I think we did a better job with that, and it helped us make a run in the second half.”
The defense ultimately did the trick for La Salle (2
3). Wynter scored 15 points, but shot 5-for-15 to get there. The Dragons shot 3-for-20 from 3-point range.
More agonizing was the effort the Dragons (3-2) expended in an ultimately fruitless chase. They trailed 30-12 only to get within one at 40
39 with 12:41 to play. After La Salle pulled ahead again, Drexel fought within 50-47 via a Wynter layup with 5:26 left. They would score just one point the rest of the way.
All told, it was eight empty possessions with Drexel within one score, unable to tie or pull ahead. Had you told coach Zach Spiker it was double that number, he might’ve concurred.
Energy, however, wasn’t the issue. Nor was it that new for Spiker, whether or not the DAC has fans.
“Our program has to create its own energy, and they know that,” he said. “They’ve got have a next-play mindset. Today was not anything different than the first four games we’ve played. We’re trying like crazy to keep our guys going. I think the energy for the most part was good.”
La Salle pulled away thanks to its plucky freshmen. Howard is still settling on a rotation; for evidence, see the wholesale changes made at the first media timeout of the game and the four subs at the under-16 timeout of the second half. The Explorers were without junior forward Clifton Moore and have yet to have the full complement for a game this season.
Anwar Gill led the way with 15 points and eight rebounds. Jahmir Brickus, the Coatesville grad, added eight. But his timing was impeccable, hitting 3-pointers on consecutive trips down
the floor on either side of the under-eight timeout to turn a one-point margin into seven, 48-41. It constituted a bona fide run Saturday.
Brickus struggled with his ball-handling with five turnovers. But he added three steals and four assists.
“He’s big time,” Howard said. “And one of the things about him, he had five turnovers today and I was on him about it, but when we needed him, he came up with some huge baskets. For him, being the big-time player he is, being a scorer, being a guy that isn’t afraid of the moment, that is used to having to deliver for his team, as he gets older and as he matures, he’s going to be a really good guard for us.”
David Beatty scored 11 points for La Salle and shouldered plenty of defensive responsibility on Wynter. Jack
Clark added seven points and 13 rebounds. Christian Ray, the 2019 Daily Times Boys Basketball Player of the Year from Haverford School, had four points and three rebounds in 15 minutes, plus a crucial block of a 3-pointer in the final minute.
Zach Walton scored 10 points, and James Butler added nine points and nine rebounds for Drexel. The teams combined for 33 turnovers.
In the end, it came down to defense for La Salle, as the cheer-leading Howard anticipated.
“We always talk about setting the tone defensively, and our guys did that,” Howard said. “We had little lulls at a certain time in the second half, but then we got back to guarding when we needed to and were able to pull it out against a tough team.”