Pookie Powell, Jared Kimbrough lead La Salle past Fordham

La Salle bounced back from its worst offensive performance in almost 15 years with a commanding 72-57 victory over Fordham on Saturday at Tom Gola Arena.

The Explorers honored graduate student guards Pookie Powell and Cheddi Mosely before the game at midcourt for senior day. They also honored athletic director Bill Bradshaw, who will retire at the end of June.

While La Salle’s upperclassmen were applauded during the pregame ceremony, an Explorers underclassman flashed under the basket in the regular-season finale.

Freshman forward Jared Kimbrough recorded a career-high 14 points to go with eight rebounds, two blocks and a steal. Kimbrough’s previous career-high of 11 points came against Rhode Island in a 78-67 loss in January.

La Salle coach Ashley Howard said he expects the 6-foot-8 Kimbrough, who has gained 30 pounds of muscle since the start of the season, to be become a big-time player in the program.

“[Kimbrough] was just in the right spot at the right time,” Howard said. “His teammates just found him. He did a great job finishing plays around the basket, which we all know he can do.”

Next up for Kimbrough and the Explorers is the Atlantic 10 tournament at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn this week. As the 9-seed, they face No. 8 Rhode Island on Thursday.

La Salle already led by double figures to open the second half, but that didn’t stop Powell and the rest of the Explorers from adding to their lead.

The Explorers started the second half on a three-point onslaught, making seven of their first eight attempts from deep to give them a 57-36 lead with 9 minutes, 19 seconds left in the contest. La Salle shot 47.8 percent from three in the win.

In his final game at Tom Gola Arena, Powell drained four of his five three-point attempts to finish with 14 points. He also had three rebounds and two assists.

Powell helped the Explorers jump out to an lead early in the first half. He had three points and two assists early that led to a 15-4 La Salle lead.

With about a minute left in the game, Powell went to the bench and received a standing ovation from the fans.

“It felt good,” Pookie said of the applause. “I respect the people here, they respect me, so it was just a good feeling.”

The Explorers have had an up-and-down year that featured them losing their first 10 games to start the season.

After La Salle fell to Temple in the season-opener, Howard talked about how the process of installing a culture and play style will take time.

Howard said his team could’ve “tanked it” multiple times throughout this season, but instead the players persevered and had their best overall performance against the Rams on the heels of a disappointing 70-39 loss to Dayton on Wednesday.

“It just shows that all of the practices, all the late-night film sessions, all the team meetings, the time that we spent together talking about culture, changing the mind-set, it’s starting to come together,” Howard said. “Hopefully we can pull it together for four games in Brooklyn and see what happens.”