PHILADELPHIA – The Sacred Heart Pioneers will travel south to take on the La Salle Explorers at Tom Gola Arena on Saturday afternoon in the Explorers' final home game of the calendar year.

Sacred Heart Pioneers (2-7) at La Salle Explorers (7-2)
Saturday, December 22, 2012 | 2 PM | Tom Gola Arena
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Game Notes
La Salle | Sacred Heart

Last Time Out
In a good old-fashioned shootout, the Blue and Gold exploded for 88 points on Thursday evening in a 14-point victory over the visiting Iona Gaels. In his home debut, junior Tyrone Garland amassed a game-high 26 points in 23 minutes off the bench, 19 of which came in the second half. Ramon Galloway joined the scoring frenzy, notching 21 first half points while finishing the game with 10 assists, six rebounds, and two steals. Jerrell Wright and Tyreek Duren both chipped in with 13 points while Steve Zack pulled down a team-high 10 rebounds.

The Explorers shot 51 percent (36-71) during the contest, including a 35 percent (6-17) mark from three and 56 percent (10-18) from the free throw line.

All-Time Series
This will mark the first-ever meeting between the two schools.

Coach's Corner
Head Coach Dr. John Giannini on…

The victory over Iona:
We beat a very good team. I think they're going to win a lot of games this year. They're very talented and hard to play against because of their speed and aggressiveness and talent. We feel good that we not only beat a good team, but we beat a good team that just had a major addition (Laury). Of course you could say the same thing about us with Tyrone having a great game.

Garland's impact:
It's hard to come in mid-year and their scouting report on him was that they played 50 feet off of him. They let him shoot every time and that's' a very uncomfortable position for a player to be in. When you combine that with the fact that it's his first game at Gola Arena ever I just think he wasn't that comfortable. He got more comfortable in the second half.

The lineup rotation:
We're going to have a rotation and Tyrone will be a part of it. Zack and Jerrell are going to play a lot and we're still going to start them together.

Scouting the Pioneers
Sacred Heart has lost five straight, their last win coming November 18 at Stony Brook. Redshirt senior guard Shane Gibson paces the Pioneers at 16.9 points/game while redshirt junior Louis Montes comes in at 13.2 points/game. Montes is also the leading contributor on the glass, averaging 6.9 rebounds/game.

As a team, the Pioneers score 66.4 points/game while allowing 74.8.  
  
Sacred Heart was beaten 62-47 on November 16 at Hartford, just four days before the Explorers defeated Hartford 64-51.

Up Next
Two straight road games are on the docket for the Blue and Gold, who travel to Siena on Dec 29 (7 PM) and Miami on January 2 (9 PM). The Siena game can be seen on the Comcast Network and the Miami game will be televised on Fox Sports South and online at ESPN3.com.