PHILADELPHIA - The La Salle Explorers had no fear when going up against the #1 Villanova Wildcats at the Palestra on Tuesday. Throughout the first half, they traded buckets and defended aggressively against the top-ranked Wildcats, and as a result, the Explorers were able to keep the game competitive.

La Salle’s relentless defense attempted to make every dribble, pass and shot difficult for Villanova, but Jay Wright’s guards were able to stay poised in the face of adversity. Sophomore, Jalen Brunson, and senior, Josh Hart, combined for 22 first half points, with Brunson scoring 12 points and Hart adding 10. The backcourt Wildcat duo was tested though, as La Salle’s balanced offense was able to keep up with the scoring of the two Villanova guards in the first half.

All five of La Salle’s starters scored in the first 20 minutes of the game, with redshirt junior forward, B.J. Johnson, leading the way for the Explorers by tallying nine first half points. The all around offensive contributions led to a 57-percent field goal percentage for La Salle, which was seven percent greater than Villanova’s 50-percent mark.

“Offensively they [La Salle] were really tough to guard,” Villanova head coach Jay Wright said of the Explorers’ balanced scoring after the game. “I was disappointed in our defense, but I got to give them credit. If they weren’t as good, it would probably be easier to guard them.”

Going into halftime, La Salle and Villanova were tied eight separate times for more than five minutes and the lead exchanged on six different occasions. At the half however, it was Villanova who had the advantage, as the Wildcats held a slim, 40-36 lead over La Salle heading into halftime.

In the second half, La Salle became even harder to stop as redshirt sophomore guard, Pookie Powell, was able to cause issues for Villanova’s man-to-man defense. The Wildcats led by as many as 13 in the second half, but every time it seemed as though the top-ranked team in the nation was about to pull away, Powell made big shot, after big shot.

“When Pookie Powell got it going, we couldn’t stop him one-on-one,” Jay Wright said of the La Salle guard.

With under three minutes left in the game and La Salle down double digits, Powell drilled a clutch, step-back three pointer to make it a seven point, 73-66 game. Two minutes later, Powell came up big again in crunch time by penetrating Villanova’s press defense and laying up a tough shot at the rim to cut the lead to just five. Just as La Salle’s sophomore point guard answered every Villanova run though, Villanova had a sophomore point guard of their own that was able to respond to every Explorer basket.

La Salle played hard and tough, but the Explorers could never halt the offensive firepower that Jalen Brunson brought to the Palestra. Brunson seemingly matched every La Salle run in the final period of play, and in the end, the Wildcat was too much to handle. Brunson scored six points in the final two minutes of play, which was half as many points as his team scored in that period of time. The clutch performance by the young guard was able to give Villanova an 89-79 win over their Big 5 rival, La Salle, and in the end, Brunson finished with a team high 26 points.

“He’s always an option that we have. It’s kind of like an ‘ace in the hole’," Wright said of Brunson. “You know, at any point, when you need to get a bucket, he can go get one for you. Kris (Jenkins) got good shots, he just didn’t make them...and Jalen knew that he had to score more.”

As Wright mentioned, Kris Jenkins struggled shooting, and only made two three pointers out of seven attempts. Nonetheless, Jenkins was still able to add 12 points in helping Villanova to the victory. Josh Hart and Mikal Bridges also scored in double-figures for the Wildcats, with Hart scoring 21 points and Bridges scoring 16 points to round out Villanova’s high-powered offense.

Though La Salle lost, three of their players scored in double-digits. Pookie Powell came up big in the clutch, scoring 20 of his game high 27 points in the second half. Powell shot 10-for-17 from the floor, which included three three-pointers, and four-for-four from the foul line. La Salle big man, Tony Washington, was able to add 10 points from the post in an efficient manner, shooting an accurate 84-percent from the floor, while B.J. Johnson scored 13 points for the Explorers in a valiant effort to takedown the Wildcats.

The two Big 5 teams continue their seasons on December 10th, as both teams will play major non-conference games on neutral courts. La Salle (4-3) will travel to American Airlines Arena for the Hoophall Miami Invitational to take on the Georgetown Hoyas of the Big East conference at 2 p.m. #1 Villanova (9-0) will face off against #23 Notre Dame from the ACC at 12 p.m. in New Jersey’s Prudential Center for the Never Forget Tribute Classic.