La Salle wins third in a row, Temple drops second straight, while St. Joe’s, Nova win big

Josh Nickelberry scored a game-high 18 points, Khalil Brantley had 16, and visiting La Salle held on against St. Bonaventure, 76-70.

A nine-point halftime lead for the Explorers (11-13, 5-6 Atlantic 10) was whittled away and erased at the 14-minute, 44-second mark of the second half. But after St. Bonaventure (13-12, 7-5) went ahead, 52-51, La Salle outscored the Bonnies, 25-18, the rest of the way. The first half saw the Explorers go into the break up, 27-12, after falling behind, 23-17, with 8 minutes left.

Mamadou Doucoure (seven points) recorded a game-high 11 rebounds for La Salle.

St. Bonaventure’s Chad Venning and Daryl Banks III each had 16 points as five players reached double figures.

La Salle returns home to face UMass (13-11, 4-8) on Saturday (2 p.m., ESPN+).

A monster scoring night from Erik Reynolds II and Cameron Brown fueled an 83-71 Hawks win over Loyola-Chicago on Wednesday.

Reynolds led the Hawks with a team-high 24 points, and Cameron Brown added 22. Lynn Greer added 17 points as the trio accounted for all but 20 of the Hawks’ total.

Braden Norris led Loyola-Chicago (8-15, 2-9 Atlantic 10) with a game-high 25 points, and Ben Schweiger added 13.

The Hawks (12-12, 6-6) have now won three of their last four contests and will be out for another when they host George Washington on Saturday (1 p.m., ESPN+).

All five Villanova starters finished in double figures in Villanova’s 81-65 win over DePaul inside Finneran Pavilion Wednesday night.

Caleb Daniels led the Wildcats (10-13, 4-8 Big East) with 18 points including 4 of 5 from three, while Cam Whitmore and Justin Moore added 17. Eric Dixon scored 13 points, alongside a team-high eight rebounds as the Wildcats shot 51.7% from the field.

Umoja Gibson and Javan Johnson led the Blue Demons (9-15, 3-10) with 18 points apiece.

The win for Villanova broke a three-game losing streak for the Wildcats and marked a season split with DePaul who beat Villanova, 75-65 on Jan. 10.

Villanova returns to action on Saturday when it hosts Seton Hall at the Wells Fargo Center in a nationally televised game (8 p.m., FS1).

Despite a game-high 27-point effort from Khalif Battle off the bench, Temple lost its second straight, this time in a narrow 72-71 road loss to SMU.

Damian Dunn and Zach Hicks each added 11 for the Owls, with Hicks also contributing a game-high 11 boards. An evenly matched affair found Temple (14-11, 8-4 American Athletic Conference) outscoring the Mustangs 41-40 in the second half, but a couple of clutch free throws, one with just three seconds remaining from SMU’s Zhuric Phelps (19 points), made the difference.

SMU (9-16, 4-8) forward Efe Odigie added 10 points alongside 11 rebounds.

Up next for Temple is another nationally televised game in back-to-back weeks, this time at Memphis on Sunday (noon, ESPN2).

Laura Ziegler had game-highs of 22 points and 16 rebounds, and St. Joseph’s led nearly the entire way in a 67-45 blowout of visiting VCU.

The Hawks (16-7, 6-5 Atlantic 10) led by as many as 33 points in the contest, shooting 42.9% from three-point range. VCU’s total marked the second-fewest points surrendered by St. Joseph’s this season.

Mackenzie Smith added 11 points for the Hawks, and Olivia Mullins (seven points) had a game-high six assists.

Timaya Lewis-Eutsey’s with 19 points paced VCU VCU (7-16, 4-7).

St. Joseph’s travels to Dayton (4-18, 3-8) on Saturday for a noon tip.

La Salle only mustered a 32.3% shooting mark from the floor against Richmond in a 67-51 road loss.

After a 2-2 tie with 8 minutes, 47 seconds to go in the first quarter, the Explorers (14-11, 5-5 Atlantic 10) trailed the rest of the contest, though they largely kept the deficit to single digits. La Salle got within two points, 37-35, at the 4 minute, 8 second mark of the third quarter, but Richmond (14-8, 4-5) responded with a 9-0 run to build its biggest lead.

Claire Jacobs had 18 points, a game-high two blocks, and converted the team’s only two free-throw attempts. Charity Shears added 11 points.

Richmond was paced by four players in double figures, led by Maggie Doogan’s game-high 20 points.

La Salle returns to Tom Gola Arena to face Duquesne (15-9, 5-6) on Sunday (2 p.m., ESPN+).

A 25-7 fourth quarter turned a close game for Temple into a double-digit road loss against East Carolina, 67-52.

Leading, 45-42, into the final quarter, the Owls (10-13, 5-6 American Athletic Conference) only made 3-of-10 field goals and got to the line three times over the 10 minutes. Meanwhile, East Carolina (16-8, 7-4 AAC) shot 64.3% from the floor in the period.

Temple’s Aleah Nelson scored 12 points, while Tiarra East had 11 points and three steals.

Amiya Joyner posted a double-double for East Carolina with game highs of 23 points and 14 rebounds.

Temple next hosts Cincinnati (8-15, 1-9) on Saturday (2 p.m., ESPN+).