PHILADELPHIA – The La Salle women's basketball squad plays at Tom Gola Arena for the second time in three days as the Explorers host Penn in a Big 5 matchup starting at 7 p.m.

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Penn Quakers (0-2) at La Salle Explorers (2-3)
Monday, December 2 | 7 PM | Tom Gola Arena

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Game Notes
La Salle

All-Time Series
The Explorers and Quakers are familiar foes, with tonight being the 41st meeting of the two Philadelphia squads. The Explorers have dominated the series, owning a 33-7 advantage, although they look to get back on track after Penn took a nine-point win at the Palestra last season.

Scouting the Explorers
Leeza Burdgess and Micahya Owens drained 15 points apiece to lead La Salle to a 71-60 win over Central Connecticut on Saturday afternoon. Burdgess scored 13 of those points in a big second half and had a near double-double with nine rebounds. Khristin Lee added 10 points, and Jasmine Alston put together another solid game with six points, seven rebounds and a game-high six assists.

Lee leads three players in double figures with 12.6 ppg and adds 5.8 rpg while dishing out a team-best 4.0 assists each outing. She leads the Atlantic 10 with 18 steals and was tied for fifth nationally as of the last NCAA statistics run. She is also ranked in a total of seven categories within the league. In addition to leading the league in steals (3.6 spg), she is fifth in minutes played (36.2/game), 8th in three-point field goal percentage (41.7%), ninth in assists (4.0 apg), tied for 13th in offensive rebounding (2.6/game) and 15th in assist-to-turnover ratio (1.1).

Alicia Cropper is second on the squad with 12.4 ppg, while also ranking in the league's top 15 in both three-point field goals made (9th; 2.2/game) and three-point field goal percentage (15th; 36.7%). She leads the A-10 in minutes played, as she is on the court for an average of 38.2 minutes.

Owens is the third Explorer in double figures, chipping in 12.2 ppg while adding 4.8 rebounds. She ranks 10th in the Atlantic 10 by making 1.8 three-pointers per game and is tied for 13th with teammate Indigo Dickens with 0.8 blocks per game.

Burdgess chips in 8.8 ppg, but has come up big on the defensive end. She averages a team-high-tying 7.2 rebounds per outing which ranks ninth in the Atlantic 10. She is also seventh in the A-10 with 3.4 offensive rebounds per game. Siobhan Beslow also adds 7.2 rpg, and is ranked in the top 15 in the league in rebounding (T-9th; 7.2 rpg), offensive rebounds (T-13th; 2.6/game) and defensive rebounds (13th; 4.6/game) while chipping in 6.8 points.

The Explorers are tops in the Atlantic 10 currently in scoring defense, limiting opponents to 61.0 ppg. They also rank first in offensive rebounds (17.8 rpg) and offensive rebound percentage (41.4%), but struggle on the defensive boards ranking 12th in the league. Overall, the squad is third in rebounding margin (+4.6 rpg) and fourth in rebounding offense (41.2 rpg), and also ranks fifth in both blocks (3.6 bpg) and steals (9.0 spg).

Scouting the Quakers
Penn has had a slow start to its season, playing just two games in the month of November and dropping both contests. The Quakers opened the season on Nov. 9, falling 56-51 to St. Francis (N.Y.) and did not play again until Nov. 23 when they dropped a 76-54 decision to #5/6 Notre Dame at the Palestra.

The schedule, however, picks up as tonight marks the first of three contests this week.

Two Quakers are averaging 11.5 ppg to lead the team, including Sydney Stipanovich and Katy Allen. All-Big 5 player Alyssa Baron is averaging 9.5 ppg through two games. Kara Bonenberger leads on the glass with 6.5 rpg and Stipanovich is adding 5.0 boards per game.

As a team, the Quakers have been limited to 52.5 ppg while yielding 66.0 ppg to opponents. They have struggled from long range, making just 15.2 percent of three-point attempts, but have converted 36.3 percent from the field overall.

Next Up
The Explorers head back on the road this Thursday for a 7 p.m. contest at William & Mary. They return to Tom Gola Arena on Sunday, Dec. 15, for another Big 5 matchup when they host Villanova at 1 p.m.