THE DEATH OF HANK GATHERS : La Salle Players Remember Lost Friend : Basketball: Explorers beat Fordham, 71-61, for Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference title and NCAA bid. Players dedicate game to Gathers.

Coach Speedy Morris called No. 11 La Salle’s victory over Fordham a “character win.” Lionel Simmons said Hank Gathers wouldn’t have wanted it any other way.

Simmons scored 26 points and grabbed 16 rebounds to lead the Explorers to a 71-61 victory over Fordham in the championship game of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference tournament.

The victory, La Salle’s 21st in a row, brought a third consecutive MAAC tourney championship. It came a day after Loyola Marymount’s Gathers collapsed and died during a West Coast Conference tournament game.

Simmons and several teammates played with or against Gathers during their schoolboy days in Philadelphia.

“Hank would have certainly wanted us to play,” said Simmons, named tournament MVP for the third consecutive year. “He was such a competitive person.”

La Salle’s players, who dedicated the game to Gathers, wore black bands on their jerseys in his memory. Some, like Simmons, had “Hank” or “44”--Gathers’ number--written on wristbands, uniforms and sneakers.

“We try to tell them that life goes on,” said Morris. “Those of us who could get up from those adversities are going to be the ones who are going to be successful.”

Morris praised Gathers as a player who always gave his all.

“If we could take an example from Hank Gathers it would be to give our best,” he said.

Simmons shook off an erratic first half that included a missed dunk and three-of-seven shooting to score 18 second-half points. Morris sat him down in the first half, which Simmons credited for allowing him to clear his head.

“My mind definitely wasn’t in it at that point,” Simmons said. Being taken out, he said, gave him the opportunity “to calm down a bit and think it over.”

Simmons came back in the second half to make five of eight shots and all eight of his free throws. His three-point play with 3:38 remaining gave the Explorers (29-1) a 60-56 lead.

Two free throws by Fred Herzog pulled the Rams (19-12) to 60-58, but Jack Hurd scored off an offensive rebound and hit a 15-foot jump shot from the right corner 20 seconds later to give La Salle a 64-58 lead with 1:44 to play.

Fordham got to 64-61 on Jerome Fazande’s free throw but four free throws by Simmons and one by Doug Overton, also a close friend of Gathers, sealed the victory.

Hurd scored 11 points and Overton and Bobby Johnson added 10 apiece for La Salle.