Yves Mekongo Mbala

Darnell Harris scored 25 points for La Salle in a return to his hometown, but high school teammate Reggie Holmes countered with 26 to lead Morgan State past the Explorers, 93-87, in a nonleague game yesterday at Hill Field House. The Explorers, who were down by 20 points with 1 minute, 33 seconds remaining, went on a 20-6 run but came up short. Harris was 7 for 13 on three-point attempts, hitting four in the final minute. The senior guard out of St. Frances had given the Explorers a 29-21 lead on a three-pointer with 7:37 left in the first half before Morgan State began its surge.

La Salle's men's basketball team rounded out its incoming class of recruits yesterday when it received an oral commitment from Ruben Guillandeaux, a 6-5 wing player from St. Patrick High School in Elizabeth, N.J., which has one of the top basketball programs in the state. Guillandeaux joins teammate Yves Mekongo-Mbala, a 6-7 forward who signed with La Salle during the early signing period. According to scout.com, Guillandeaux is a good long-range shooter who attracted interest from Southern Cal, Boston College, Providence, Rhode Island, Central Florida, Seton Hall and Massachusetts.

La Salle basketball coach John Giannini, whose contract was to expire after the 2009 season, has been given a one-year extension. Giannini, who guided the Explorers to a 10-19 record last winter in his first year with the team, was hired in 2004 after rape allegations against three former La Salle players led to the resignation of coach Billy Hahn. "I think the leadership he displayed last season is a strong indication of how good of a coach John is and how good for the program he will be," athletic director Tom Brennan said.

After yesterday's season-ending 76-65 loss to Xavier, La Salle coach John Giannini heaped praise on his team's departing seniors, forward Mike St. John and guard Sean Neal. But the third-year men's basketball coach could not ignore the contributions - positive and negative - of the Explorers' underclassmen in a surprisingly competitive game against the Atlantic Ten regular season champions. "I thought we played hard, and we played well against a Xavier team that is poised to make a run in the NCAA tournament," Giannini said.

Two days after La Salle coach John Giannini experienced something he never had before, he almost experienced it again. The Explorers never trailed in the second half yesterday against Valparaiso in a consolation game of the Paradise Jam, yet saw the game go into overtime. It was the same scenario they faced in Saturday's game against Southern Mississippi. But while the Explorers lost Saturday, they hung tough yesterday, with Yves Mekongo Mbala scoring five of their first six points in the extra period, and came away with a 75-70 victory at the University of the Virgin Islands.

La Salle gave No. 2-ranked Connecticut a battle last night before the Huskies pulled away to an 89-81 victory in the Paradise Jam at the University of the Virgin Islands. Rodney Green scored a game-high 25 points for La Salle (1-2). Ruben Guillandeaux and Yves Mekongo Mbala added 13 points each for the Explorers. Kemba Walker scored 23 points and Jeff Adrien added 22 points and grabbed 14 rebounds to lead UConn (3-0). The Huskies will take on No. 17 Miami in the second round tomorrow.

Rodney Green scored a career-high 25 points yesterday to lead La Salle past Central Connecticut State, 86-73, at Detrick Gym. Senior Mike St. John contributed 10 assists for the Explorers (5-2) in the win over the host Blue Devils (3-8). After the teams traded leads six times in the first half, freshman Yves Mekongo Mbala hit a jumper with 12 minutes, 32 seconds remaining to give the Explorers a 17-16 lead. They did not trail again, but the Blue Devils were able to cut the lead to two points late in the second half.

Every college basketball coach has a vision of what his team will look like when the young players mature and the chemistry among them develops. La Salle's John Giannini has this vision: "When this team takes shape, I think you'll look at it as an athletic and pretty interchangeable group," he said. "I think we'll be good in transition. I think we should be able to defend well, and I think we'll have some mismatches on the offensive end, and I hope we're skilled enough and smart enough to take advantage of them.

Yves Mekongo Mbala handled the first half, and his teammates took care of the rest of the game as La Salle downed George Washington, 76-66, in an Atlantic Ten Conference game tonight at Tom Gola Arena. Mekongo Mbala finished with a game-high 26 points, but the junior forward's 22 points before the break gave the Explorers a lead they held through most of the second half. The 22 points by the half were the most by a La Salle player since Steve Smith put up 23 against Cincinnati in 2004.

Both Penn and La Salle were trying to secure their first Big Five win of the season when the teams met for the 62d time last night at Tom Gola Arena. La Salle succeeded. Behind a career-high 26 points from guard Rodney Green, the Explorers seized the lead early in the first half and did not relinquish it on their way to a 79-70 win over the visitors. La Salle is 10-7 overall and 1-1 in the City Series. Penn fell to 4-9 and 0-3. "I thought we could match up, but we came out a little flat," said Penn swingman Tyler Bernardini, who led his team with 23 points.

La Salle coach John Giannini said the game against Tulane yesterday for fifth place in the Charleston Classic may have been his team's worst of the year. Good thing La Salle won. Tulane's Kevin Sims' open three-point shot at the buzzer bounced out, allowing the Explorers (3-1) to escape with a 61-59 victory. "We missed free throws, we gave up two baskets off not boxing out on free throws, and we had some miscommunications that allowed them to have open shots," said Giannini.

La Salle coach John Giannini wanted to see two good halves of basketball from the Explorers. He got it, but one probably would have been sufficient. La Salle rolled to a 16-point halftime lead over Davidson last night and coasted home for an 84-70 victory over the Wildcats in the second round of the Charleston Classic at the Carolina First Center. "This is clearly our best game of the year because it was our best defensive game," Giannini said. "We did our best job talking on defense, we did our best job getting back in transition.

Even after watching La Salle try unsuccessfully to solve the riddle that was the Richmond zone defense for 40 minutes, Explorers coach John Giannini showed a hint of a wry smile last night. "We couldn't make shots outside or inside," Giannini said, "and that doesn't leave any other possibilities. " The Explorers converted a season-low 28.1 percent of their field-goal tries and dropped a dreadful 62-53 decision in an Atlantic Ten Conference game at Tom Gola Arena. La Salle (14-11, 5-6 A-10)

Perhaps being reminded of La Salle's exasperating last three games while riding a bus to Washington at rush hour yesterday wasn't John Giannini's idea of fun, but it didn't stop the Explorers coach from seeing better days ahead. Over an eight-day span, the Explorers lost in overtime to Rhode Island, by two points to Dayton, and by five points to St. Bonaventure. Their 72-67 defeat to the Bonnies last Saturday was "our poorest overall performance of the year," Giannini said. But the schedule is about to turn in La Salle's favor, and maybe the season as well.

It's an old sports clich?, the one about leadership. But in college basketball each season, there are leaders who take it upon themselves to will a team to its goal. Temple had Mark Tyndale last season. La Salle, after last night's 76-66 Atlantic Ten Conference win over George Washington at Tom Gola Arena, is moving in that direction. Much of that improvement has to do with Rodney Green and, to a lesser extent, Paul Johnson. Last night, the two were pivotal down the stretch, each scoring nine points with less than nine minutes remaining as the Explorers held off the hungry Colonials.

Yves Mekongo Mbala handled the first half, and his teammates took care of the rest of the game as La Salle downed George Washington, 76-66, in an Atlantic Ten Conference game tonight at Tom Gola Arena. Mekongo Mbala finished with a game-high 26 points, but the junior forward's 22 points before the break gave the Explorers a lead they held through most of the second half. The 22 points by the half were the most by a La Salle player since Steve Smith put up 23 against Cincinnati in 2004.

Both Penn and La Salle were trying to secure their first Big Five win of the season when the teams met for the 62d time last night at Tom Gola Arena. La Salle succeeded. Behind a career-high 26 points from guard Rodney Green, the Explorers seized the lead early in the first half and did not relinquish it on their way to a 79-70 win over the visitors. La Salle is 10-7 overall and 1-1 in the City Series. Penn fell to 4-9 and 0-3. "I thought we could match up, but we came out a little flat," said Penn swingman Tyler Bernardini, who led his team with 23 points.

One team is in the same place their opponent was not too long ago. Penn is suffering through a season of ups-and-downs due to its abundance of inexperience. Most of the playing time shelled out by coach Glenn Miller is being divided between sophomores and freshmen. And when you have to rely on youngsters to win basketball games, a lot of times it just ain't pretty. La Salle coach John Giannini has been there, done that. He understands what it's like to rely on underclassmen to carry your program.

La Salle knows what it wants to do in a game, but the Explorers found out yesterday that teams such as Xavier can make opponents look as if they have no idea. The Musketeers, who are ranked 15th by the Associated Press and 16th in USA Today/ESPN coaches' poll, gave La Salle almost no chance to execute its game plan. The Explorers never led - the score, in fact, was never tied - and set a season low for points while trailing by as many as 22 in a 73-53 Atlantic 10 loss at Xavier's Cintas Center.

Two years ago, John Giannini watched his La Salle Explorers squander a late seven-point lead in an Atlantic 10 Conference loss at Charlotte. He feared a repeat last night. But an unlikely three-pointer by Kimmani Barrett, back-to-back buckets by Rodney Green, and seven points in the game's final 34.4 seconds by Ruben Guillandeaux sealed the 68-61 victory for the Explorers in front of 5,132 fans at Halton Arena. "Those guys were here and suffered 2 years ago," Giannini said, referring to his trio of juniors that played key roles in the final minutes of last night's game.