PHILADELPHIA – The Saint Joseph's men's basketball team closed a double-digit halftime deficit to a pair of points with less than four minutes to play, but the La Salle Explorers escaped with a 81-74 final on the final day of the regular season for both teams.
 
BY THE NUMBERS

• Erik Reynolds II tallied 22 in the contest, going 5-for-10 from beyond the arc. His third triple of the night was the 344th of his career, passing Langston Galloway (2011-14) for the Hawks' all-time record.
• He further filled the stats sheet with a season-high matching six assists, four rebounds and two blocks.
• Xayvier Brown was once again in double figures, scoring 16. He has 10+ points in every game he has played this year.
• Rasheer Fleming posted 14, pulling in a team-high eight boards.
• Anthony Finkley was in double figures for the third consecutive game with 13.

 
HOW IT HAPPENED

• The Hawks got off to a hot start, connecting on four of their first five shots to build a 14-8 lead in less than five minutes.
• Coming out of the initial media timeout, the Explorers responded, scoring 10 in a row before a trey by Reynolds stopped the run. The three-pointer ignited an 8-0 spurt for SJU as St. Joe's reclaimed the lead, 22-18 at the 11:58 mark.
• The remainder of the half was a closely contested matchup as neither team held more than a three-point lead for the next six minutes.
• As the half wound down, St. Joe's went cold while La Salle continued to find their shot as the Explorers took a 44-33 lead into the break.
• Starting the second half, La Salle kept Saint Joseph's at arm's length, maintaining a double-digit lead for the first eight minutes of the stanza.
• The Hawks began to close the gap towards the midway mark of the half as a pair of free throws from Finkley pulled the score to 58-54 with 9:40 to play.
• Making further inroads, SJU sliced the lead to 71-69 on a three by Derek Simpson at the 3:57 mark.
• That was as close as the Hawks would get, however, as the Explorers were able to hold on.

 
UP NEXT
Saint Joseph's begins its postseason run in the Atlantic 10 Championship on Thursday, March 13. The time of the Hawks' first game will be determined based on the outcome of games on Saturday. The opponent is based on results in the First Round.