Ishan Sharma led a balanced offense with 15 points as No. 19 Saint Louis pulled away from La Salle 82-58 Saturday afternoon.
Quentin Jones and Amari McCottry scored 13 points and Dion Brown added 12 as the Billikens (23-1, 11-0 Atlantic 10) won their 17th straight game.
Rob Dockery scored 19 points and grabbed eight rebounds for the Explorers (7-17, 3-8), who lost their fourth straight game.
Saint Louis shot 10-for-20 from 3-point range during the second half while outscoring La Salle 51-31.
The Explorers forced three early turnovers and pushed out to their 6-1 lead, with Dockery scoring four early points. The Billikens responded with an 11-2 run fueled by two baskets by Brown inside and Sharma’s 3-pointer coming off the bench.
After Saint Louis moved out to a 19-13 lead with Paul Otieno scoring twice inside, La Salle dug in at the defensive end of the court by switching up the aggressive zones.
The Explorers tied the game 19-19, 21-21, 23-23 and 25-25 while extending possessions with offensive rebounds.
The Billikens finally broke through with 3-point jumpers by Jones and Sharma on consecutive possessions, but Dockery scored inside to cut La Salle’s halftime deficit to 31-27.
Edwin Daniel cut the lead to 34-31 early in the second half with his second consecutive inside basket for La Salle.
The Billikens finally got rolling with a 7-0 surge, triggered by Trey Green’s 3-point jumper, to move ahead 41-31.
After making just three 3-point shots in the first half, Saint Louis made four in the first 7:30 of the second half while extending its lead to 52-40.
The Explorers battled back, cutting their deficit to 54-48 on Dockery’s layup with 8:26 left to play. But the Billikens answered with two 3-point jumpers by Sharma and one by Brady Dunlap in a 55-second span to build a 63-48 margin.
From there, the Explorers never got closer.
