Xavier Musketeers at La Salle Explorers
Date: Wednesday, January 4
Time: 6:00 PM
Location: Tom Gola Arena
Radio: WNTP 990 AM
TV: The Comcast Network, Fox Sports Ohio (pbp: Tom McCarthy, color: Steve Wolf)

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The following ticket deals are in place for the next two home men's basketball games, including Wednesday: Students, get two free tickets with your ID. Faculty/staff: Get a free ticket with your ID and guest tickets are $5 each. General public: Buy one ticket, get one free. 

PHILADELPHIA – La Salle, winners of eight of its last nine contests, will open up conference play by hosting preseason A-10 favorite Xavier on Wednesday night. Tip-off is set for 6 PM from Gola Arena, where the Explorers have won a record nine straight contests.

The game will be broadcast on The Comcast Network in Philadelphia and Fox Sports Ohio. Tom McCarthy and Steve Wolf are on the call.

Scouting the Explorers (10-4, 0-0 A-10)

The Blue and Gold will look to knock off the perennial power in the Atlantic 10 to kick off league play. The Explorers are off to a 10-4 start, the best record for La Salle after 14 games since the 1990-91 team started 11-3.

Sophomore Tyreek Duren, named the Big 5 Player of the Week on Tuesday, has averaged 21 ppg. over his last two contests. He leads the A-10 in plus/minus at 184 and ranks 35th nationally (according to statsheet.com).

Junior Ramon Galloway had 19 points in the Hartford victory and leads the team in scoring (11^th in A-10) at 15.2 ppg. He is also tops in the league in three-pointers per game at 2.8 and third in three-point field goal percentage (.470).

A commitment to defense has been the theme all season and that continued in the past two games, holding Boston University and Hartford under 55 points. The Explorers have held seven opponents to 55 points or less this season which is more than the last six seasons combined. It is the most since the 1954 NCAA Championship team held eight opponents to 55 or less.

There are two numbers that if La Salle reaches, it usually leads to a victory. The Explorers are 10-0 when scoring 70 points and 9-1 when making at least eight three-pointers.

In its ten wins,?La Salle is shooting 100-for-215 from three-point range (46.5%) and makes 10.0 per game. In its four losses, La Salle is shooting 17-for-78 (21.7%) and makes 4.3 per game.

Scouting the Musketeers (9-4, 0-0 A-10)

Xavier reached as high as eight in the national polls but have lost four of its last five to drop out of the rankings. All-American Tu Holloway leads the Musketeers, who were picked to win the Atlantic 10 in the preseason poll. Holloway averages 18.4 ppg. and 4.8 apg. while Mark Lyons added 17.2 ppg.
 
Xavier has won six straight A-10 regular season titles and have reached six straight NCAA Tournaments.
 
Next Up
La Salle will wrap up the four-game home-stand on Sunday at 2 PM when it hosts Massachusetts. The game will be televised locally on Comcast SportsNet.