La Salle Cruises to Victory

    La Salle cruised to victory in their contest last night against Boise State in the First Four, to earn the right to play Kansas State on Friday.  The Explorers won the game by a final score of 80-71.  While the final score looks close, the Explorers were in complete control throughout, and dominated the Broncos for forty minutes.

    The Explorers came out of the starting gate shooting the lights out in University of Dayton Arena.  La Salle was yet again without the services of big-man Steve Zack, but that didn't stop the Explorers from winning their first game, in their first NCAA Tournament appearance in 21 years.  The Explorers made up for their lack of size by shooting 63.3% from the field, including 52.4% from 3-point range.
    La Salle was cruising early, and jumped out to a 14 point lead at one point in the first half.  The Explorers entered the locker room at halftime with 35-27 lead over the Broncos.  While La Salle only outscored Boise State 45-44 in the second half, they remained in complete control for the entire game.
    Tyrone Garland led the Explorers on a spectacular night of shooting.  Garland shot 9 for 11 from the field to score 22 points in the contest.  The hot shooting from the guard helped to make up for the lack of the size the Explorers suffer from without Steve Zack.
    Ramon Galloway had a spectacular game as well, shooting 8 for 13 and scoring 21 points against the Broncos.  Galloway also contributed 4 rebounds and 4 assists in the contest.  La Salle's other star guard, Tyreek Duren did not have a great game, scoring only 4 points, but this was more than made up for by the shooting efforts by the rest of the Explorers.
    Jerrell Wright scored 13 points while also grabbing 6 rebounds in the contest.  Sam Mills shot the lights out from behind the arc, going 5-6 to score 15 points.
    The Explorers will now take on 4th seeded Kansas State on Friday, with a chance to pull a major upset.  It would help if Zack was back for the Explorers, but that seems unlikely.  The Explorers will be able to make due, however, if they can keep shooting as well as they did against the Broncos.  Going out on a limb, I am calling an Explorers upset over Kansas State by a score of 68-63.  Will La Salle be this years Cinderella squad?  Only time will tell, but they definitely have all the tools to be.