RICHMOND, VA. – Fresh off a 54-53 victory over #9/9 Butler, the La Salle men's basketball team faces another steep challenge on Saturday, when it travels to #19/16 VCU.
La Salle Explorers (13-5, 3-2 A-10) vs. #19/16 VCU Rams (16-4, 4-1 A-10)
Saturday, January 26, 2013 | 8 PM | Siegel Center
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Game Notes
La Salle |
VCU
Last Time Out
Ramon Galloway converted an acrobatic layup with 2.7 seconds left to seal a 54-53 victory over #9/9 Butler Wednesday evening at Tom Gola Arena.
Tyreek Duren put together one of the most complete games of his career, with a team-high 16 points (7-14 FG, 2-3 3PT), six assists, five rebounds, three steals, and two blocks. He was joined in the double digit scoring column by
Sam Mills with 11 points, nine coming in the second half, including a floater with 32 seconds remaining.
Butler outshot the Explorers, 49 percent (23-47) to 41 percent (23-56), but La Salle capitalized on a 13-8 turnover advantage. The Blue and Gold converted 18 points off turnovers and 12 fast break points.
Scouting the Explorers
Dr. John Giannini and the La Salle staff will join over 4,000 college and high school basketball coaches across the United States to make an unusual fash- ion statement when they wear sneakers with their game attire to support the Coaches vs. Cancer program during the 10th annual Suits And Sneakers weekend. •
Steve Zack has shot 36-for-58 (.621) from the field in his past nine games.
La Salle hasn't played ranked teams in back-to-back games since falling to #4 Villanova and #1 UMass on February 12 and 15, 1996.
Defensively in the first half of games, La Salle has allowed teams to shoot .468 from the field and .360 from three-point range. In the second half, it is .438 from the field and .283 from three.
Coach's Corner
Head coach
Dr. John Giannini on…
His team's victory over Butler:
We have to feel tremendous about getting a hard-earned victory against a special opponent like that. I'm not surprised at how well our guys did and how they were able to pull off the victory but it's certainly special beating a team and a program that we respect and admire the way we do Butler.
His team's mindset moving forward:
This win doesn't mean we're going to have a great season. We have VCU Saturday. We can't go in and say "we beat Butler, we're realy good; are you going to let us win it?" It doesn't work that way.
Scouting the Rams
VCU led Richmond 63-56 with 42 seconds left on Thursday evening, but the Spiders reeled off a 13-6 run in the game's final seconds to force overtime. Richmond outscored the Rams 17-5 in the overtime period to seal the improbable victory. The loss snapped a 13-game VCU win streak, with their last defeat coming November 24 against then #13 Missouri.
The Rams lead the Atlantic 10 in eight categories: scoring offense (79.3 ppg, 11
th nationally), scoring margin (+17.9, 7
th nationally), assists/game (16.5, 16
th nationally), steals/game (12.9, 1
st nationally), turnover margin (+8.89, 1
st nationally), assist/turnover ratio (1.3, 18
th nationally), offensive rebounds/game (14.8), and three point field goals/game (8.7, 14
th nationally).
VCU possesses three of the conference's top 25 scorers in sophomore guard Treveon Graham (16.2 ppg), junior forward Juvonte Reddic (13.5 ppg, 7.8 rpg), and senior guard Troy Daniels (12.7 ppg). Daniels' 3.84 three point field goals/game figure leads the A-10 and ranks fourth in the country.
Defensively, the Rams are paced by two of the nation's top 10 steal artists in sophomore guard Briante Weber (3.37 spg) and senior guard Darius Theus (2.83 spg). Theus and Weber also initiate the Rams offense, averaging 4.9 and 3.78 assists/game, respectively.
Up Next
The Explorers return to Gola Arena on Wednesday, January 30 for a tilt with Massachusetts.
