PHILADELPHIA, PA (02/06/02) - Sophomore Jameer Nelson tallied a career high 29 points, but it was senior Bill Phillips' defense that played the biggest part in Saint Joseph's 80-71 win over the La Salle Explorers at the Palestra on Wednesday evening. Phillips, knownmore for his outside shooting and court savvy, shut down high-scoring Rasual Butler, holding the Explorer All-American Candidate to just one field goal on 13 attempts. Butler, who will tally his 2,000th point within the next two weeks, is fourth in the Atlantic 10 in scoring, entering the contest with a 21.3 average. Saint Joseph's, 14-7, 8-1 in A-10 play, took the lead for good on a Delonte West basket at the 11:20 mark of the first half, but it was never really comfortable for the 7,122 fans packed into the Palestra. SJU would stretch the margin to 15, at the start of the second half (39-24), but the Explorers, 9-13, 2-7, would creep back, keeping within striking distance. And in the back of everyone's mind loomed Butler. The rangy La Salle Explorer was bound to break away from Phillips' tenacious defense and ignite a run. How long could he go without a field goal? Especially considering it was his last game in the historic city arena. Well, Phillips was up to the challenge. Stalking Butler all over the court and keeping a hand in his face as he put up a dozen straight shots off the mark. It was not until there was just 55 seconds remaining that the 6-7 Roman Catholic High grad finally connected on his lone basket, a runner in the lane. That made it 75-69 SJU. The Hawks would hit seven of eight free throws after that to seal the win. "I knew I had help behind me so I was just trying to get up on him," stated Phillips, who was playing in front of french media and scouts from his native country's national team. "If he was going to beat me, it was going to be driving to the basket." "We let Jeff Miller be Butler (in practice) and he did a good job," added Martelli on the preparation for the game. "We knew their patterns, we knew their calls and these guys paid real good attention to detail." Nelson, on the other hand, was making big basket after big basket. The 6-0 point guard was driving the lane and looking to score. And score he did, hitting 8-of-12 from the field, a career-high 5-of-7 three-pointers, and 8-of-10 free throws for his game high total. He also grabbed five rebounds and led the squad with three assists. "We actually showed clips of last year's playoff game (against La Salle, previous career high 23 points) and I said to Jameer, 'who was that guy?'",. explained Martelli. "And he said, he will be back. And he was back." Nelson hit two big second half threes, both from NBA range, to suspend Explorer runs late in the game. "I saw the last couple of games that teams were leaning on Marv. So I felt as though I had to get the fire back," stated Nelson who also passed Geoff Arnold and moved into 10th place on the SJU assist list with 347 for his career. Freshman Delonte West also brought his "A" game. The Hawks' sixth man was brilliant offensively, especially in the first half, tallying double figures (11 points) for the fourth time this season. Marvin O'Connor tossed in a quiet 16 points, including 4-of-4 free throws in the final minute. It was last year, in SJU's regular season finale, that O'Connor scored 18 points in that same amount of time. But this time, the Hawks won. "This is a day at a time," added Martelli on where SJU goes from here. "It did not take us a day to get into the depths or the hole, and it will not take us a day to get out." La Salle was led by Mike Cleaves (16 points) and Reggie Okosa (14 and 8 rebounds).