Atlantic 10 Tournament: LaSalle and Saint Louis Move On In Day 1

The Atlantic 10 Men’s Basketball Tournament started at from the Barclays Center with two “play-in” games on Wednesday night before the tournament goes into full swing on Thursday. These two games would determine who would move on in the tournament but these four teams are at the bottom of the conference so not much is expected from them this week.

Game one featured the George Mason Patriots (11-20, 5-13) against the Saint Louis Billikens (10-20, 5-13) to determine who would play the number five seed George Washington Colonials in Thursday’s early game. For both teams, the 2015-2016 season could be seen as disappointing even though they were both picked to finish at the bottom of Atlantic 10 play in preseason polls.

The story of the first half was the lights out shooting by Saint Louis from behind the arc. The Billikens shot 6-13 from three to jump out to a nine point halftime lead. Marcus Bartley led Saint Louis in scoring with 14 points and 4-for-5 shooting from three-point land. While Saint Louis shot great, George Mason struggled only shooting 29 percent from the field and 2-for-13 from three. While winning the first half rebounding battle by nine, Mason were stymied defensively at all points in the first half

The second half saw the Patriots make a run at Saint Louis as the shooting touch of George Mason suddenly turned on. The run was fueled by a four-play point by Otis Livingston at the 14:37 mark of the second half. Past the midway point of the second half however, the Patriots were down by nine after two more Bartley threes. After Bartley picked up his fourth foul at the 6:50 mark, George Mason was able to cut the lead to one 63-62 but Saint Louis peeled off six consecutive points and that was as close as George Mason got for the rest of the game.

The Billikens held on to win 83-78 with Bartley leading Saint Louis with 24 points.

Game 2 featured Duquesne (16-15, 6-12) and LaSalle (8-21, 4-14) where the winner would get number six seed Davidson on Thursday night. The first half was fast paced as both teams ran up-tempo offenses throughout the first 20 minutes of play. While both teams put up well over 30 points each, Duquesne were victims of mistakes as they turned the ball over eleven times in the first half. Their saving grace was shooting 54 percent from the field which kept them in the game in the first half. LaSalle turned those eleven Duquesne turnovers into 18 points en route to a 43-38 lead at halftime.

After the Dukes went on an 8-0 to start the second half, LaSalle came right back and went on an 11-0 run of their own led by three long range shots from guard Jordan Price. While Price was singlehandedly putting LaSalle in the lead, Micah Mason was keeping Duquesne in the game throughout as he was matching Price almost shot for shot during the early stages of the second half. During the latter stages of the half, the tempo of the game slowed for both teams as it became a half-court fight for the Explorers and Dukes.

A weird occurrence happened in the latter stages of the game as the court lights at Barclays Center shut off and delayed the game for a few minutes. By that point the game was not in doubt as LaSalle began pulling away and there was nothing Duquesne could do to get back into it.

The Explorers won 88-73 as Price scored 36 points, the fourth most points scored in an Atlantic 10 Tournament history. Mason finished with 26 points for Duquesne as they were held to just 34 percent shooting in the second half.

LaSalle now moves on to face Davidson in second round action at Atlantic 10 Tournament. Here is the schedule for Thursday at the A10 Basketball Championship:

12 p.m.: No. 8 Fordham Rams vs. No. 9 Richmond Spiders
2 p.m.: No. 5 George Washington Colonials vs. No. 13 Saint Louis Billikens
6:30 p.m.: No. 7 Rhode Island Rams vs. No. 10: UMass Minutemen
9 p.m.: No. 6: Davidson Wildcats vs. No. 14 LaSalle Explorers