Despite poor shooting at stripe, Meteors prevail

Updated: March 22, 2011 4:56PM

Far from perfect at the free throw line Saturday, De La Salle still has a perfect record four games into the season after winning the final of the John McBride Classic at Stagg 47-40 over the host Chargers.

"When you miss 20 free throws, you're lucky to get a win,'' De La Salle coach Tom White said.

De La Salle led 43-29 after the third quarter, but the Meteors missed 13 of 17 free throws in the fourth quarter and failed to pull away.

"We've got to knock down our free throws,'' said forward Mike Shaw, who had a game-high 16 points and also grabbed eight rebounds. "That really hurt us.''

Forward Darius Draper had 14 points and 11 rebounds for Stagg (3-1) and guard Dan Ahern had 10 points.

De La Salle outscored Stagg 22-14 in the second quarter, including Shaw's three-pointer at the buzzer that gave the Meteors a 31-20 halftime lead.

Stagg faced a 14-point deficit heading into the final quarter, but a three-pointer and a layup by Draper made it 44-37 with 2:35 to play. Stagg got within six points when Ahern's second three-pointer of the quarter made it 46-40 with 36 seconds left.

"We scrapped-we didn't quit,'' Stagg coach John Daniels said. "We gave ourselves a chance at the end. They're a great team.''

De La Salle is coming off a 19-7 season with high expectations for this one.

"We just want to get our chemistry going, see how we play together,'' Shaw said. "This was a tune-up for us.''

"It's an evaluation,'' White said. "We'll work on the things we've been working on the last few weeks and go from there.''

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