Hot Shooting Price Leads La Salle to Upset Over VCU

(Geoff Burke/USA TODAY Sports)

Redshirt sophomore Jordan Price had 34 points, 18 rebounds, and five assists Wednesday night to lead La Salle to defeat #20 VCU in double overtime. Price played in 48 of 50 minutes in the game scoring 5-for-10 of his three-point attempts and 10-of-22 in his field goals attempts. It is of no surprise that Price was the one to step up and knock down the game tying three pointer to send the game into its first overtime against the #2 team in the conference.

The Decatur, GA native scored 30 points in his last game against Massachusetts and has had four this season. Last night he became the first player this season in Division 1 basketball to have a 34 point, 18 rebound, five assist game and only the fourth player in the last 19 years. He joins three notable players on that list- Blake Griffin, Norris Cole and Michael Sweetney. Fellow redshirt sophomore Cleon Roberts and senior Jerrell Wright finished with 12 apiece in the Explorers win.

More impressively, the Explorers gave VCU just their third home loss in the last 32 games. The Blue and Gold are also the only team in the Atlantic 10 Conference to defeat the Rams more than once (last time on January 26, 2013) at home since VCU joined the conference. They are also just one of two teams, Richmond being the other, in the conference to win at the Siegel Center.

VCU shot just 30% last night as they played without two key players. This was their third game without starting point guard Briante Weber who suffered a major knee injury against George Washington. They were also without Teveon Graham who sat out for the second straight game with a high ankle sprain. Last year, Graham scored his career high 34 points in the Rams double overtime win over La Salle. JeQuan Lewis, has stepped up in the loss of Weber and led VCU last night with a career high 26 points including 14 of the Rams 15 overtime points. Melvin Johnson also added 13 points.

The Explorers (14-10, 6-5 Atlantic 10) are back at the Tom Gola Arena on Saturday at 2 PM vs. Davidson.