La Salle coach John Giannini after Wednesday's 69-60 win over Rider:

"We're thrilled. I have, for good reason, been building up Rider all week with our players. They got a win over a ranked team, they have a win at home against a Big Five team, they were 26-4 in their last 30 games at home. It's a veteran team with good players, they've beaten good teams, they rarely lose at home.

"They made a great run at us. They played with great effort. We're a really good rebounding team. It's one thing that we physically do at a really high level, and in the second half they got a lot of second chances, they played with great heart.

"We earned every bit of that win with the way that Rider challenged us. I like the way that we responded."