Fresh off a school record 27 wins in 2016-17, head coach Chris Fite decided it was in the best interest of the Shippensburg University men’s basketball team to face a tough stretch early in the new season.

The Raiders started a difficult stretch of games against top opponents with a matchup against La Salle University — one of the original Philadelphia Big 5 schools — as a tune up for the upcoming season.

Star SU forward and preseason All-American Dustin Sleva had an uncharacteristic day, shooting just 4-of-12 from the field in SU’s 74-60 loss to the Explorers inside Tom Gola Arena at TruMark Financial Center in Philadelphia on Saturday. La Salle, a Division I program, held SU to just 31.6 percent shooting from the floor in the exhibition.

La Salle got off to an early seven-point lead after a short jumper from freshman Miles Brookins with 12:47 left in the opening half. La Salle pushed its lead to 28-15 after a 3-pointer by Isiah Deas. Deas finished with 14 points in the game.

The Raiders trailed by six points with just less than six minutes left in the half. Deas added two more threes and the Explorers grabbed a buzzer-beating layup by Amar Stukes, giving La Salle a 37-28 lead at the intermission.

SU caught fire after the half, scoring the first five points of the second half on a 3-pointer by Sleva and a jumper by Justin McCarthur to cut the La Salle lead to 43-40 with 13:30 left to play. 

La Salle began to use its length and physicality to get to the foul line, and took advantage of its opportunities, converting 16-of-17 attempts at the free-throw line in the second half. The Explorers pushed their lead to double digits with seven minutes left and held it the rest of the way.

Sleva led SU with his 15 points, while Antonio Kellem had 10 points. SU entered the contest as the Preseason No. 8 team in Division II basketball. La Salle’s B.J. Johnson had a double-double with a game-high 19 points and 13 rebounds, while Stukes had 18 points.

“We played a very experienced team with four or five starters back from last year’s 27-4 team,” La Salle head coach John Giannini said to goexplorers.com. 

“Those kids expected to win, we knew they could beat us. That’s why we played them. We did not want a confidence builder, we wanted to play legit Division I competition but we’re not allowed to play a Division I school [in an exhibition],” Giannini said. “So, we had to go out and find an elite Division II team and they gave us all we could handle.”

While SU did not come away with a win, it can be happy with its success against an extremely solid Division I program that reached the Sweet 16 of the 2013 NCAA tournament. The Explorers then fell to Wichita State University, which advanced all the way to the Final Four and was the preseason No. 2 team in all of Division I basketball.

“It’s fun for our guys. It gets them up against a high-profile team to see how we measure up,” Fite said before the scrimmage. “We’ve been watching them on film and they are pretty good. We will see what we can do. Their athleticism and length is something we haven’t seen in a while, and it’ll be good preparation leading into the following weekend where we will play some athletic teams, too.”

SU will open its season on Friday Nov. 10 at 8 p.m. with a matchup against a strong Shaw University program in the Wolf’s Bus Line Classic tipoff tournament, before hosting Virginia Union University on Saturday at 8 p.m. in a rematch of SU’s opening game of the 2017 NCAA Tournament.

“We thought this year was a good year to load up our schedule and see how we measure up,” Fite said. “We have two high level teams coming in for that tip-off tournament and we’re going to be challenged right off the bat.”

“There have been some times when I’ve questioned why I made that decision,” Fite joked. “But I think it will be great for us to get out there and compete.”

SU’s season begins on Friday at Heiges Field House at 8 p.m. when they take on Shaw.

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