Down the stretch, the Explorers gave the ball to Green and got out of the way, but he couldn't find a way to get free against the Richmond zone.
It was the defense, however, that let La Salle down after the Explorers opened the second half on an 11-0 run to take a 36-30 lead on Green's turnaround jumper with 15 minutes, 16 seconds to play. Green and Guillandeaux scored five points apiece in the spurt.
La Salle led, 38-32, before the Spiders (13-13, 5-6), who had not scored on their first eight possessions of the half, answered with a 15-2 run over the next 41/2 minutes. Kevin Anderson, a 6-foot guard who led all scorers with 28 points, scored six of them during this stretch, including a high-arcing jumper that gave Richmond a 47-40 lead.
After Kimmani Barrett scored for La Salle, Anderson sank two free throws and Jarhon Giddings dunked a follow to extend the Richmond lead to 51-42 with 6:11 remaining. The Explorers got as close as six twice in the final two minutes but did not score in the final 1:15.
The Spiders shot 50 percent from the field.
The Explorers shot only 6 of 32 from the field in the first half. But even though they were far from smooth running their offense, they did enough to get to the free-throw line often and drained 12 of 12.
Thanks to that proficiency from the line, and the fact that they outrebounded the Spiders, 24-13, and held a 12-4 edge on second-chance points, they trailed by only 30-25 at the half.
Green did not have a field goal in the first half, punctuating an 0-for-8 period with an air ball from three-point land as the buzzer sounded, and scored four points.
Richmond got 14 points in the half from Anderson on 7-of-8 shooting. The Spiders shot 53.6 percent from the field but did not get to the line at all in the first half, a certain topic of frequent discussions between coach Chris Mooney and the officials.
The Spiders made seven of their first 10 attempts.
Contact staff writer Joe Juliano at 215-854-4494 or jjuliano@phillynews.com.
