PHILADELPHIA – Winners of four straight, the La Salle men's basketball team will be tested on Thursday at the Liacouras Center in a Big 5 clash with the Temple Owls. An Explorer win would mark a 4-0 sweep through the city this season and an outright Big 5 Championship for the Blue and Gold.

La Salle Explorers (18-6, 8-3 A-10, 3-0 Big 5) at Temple Owls (17-8, 6-5 A-10, 2-1 Big 5)
Thursday, February 21, 2013 | 7 PM | Liacouras Center
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TV: CBS Sports Network (pbp: Tom McCarthy; color: John Griffin; sideline: Jon Rothstein)
Radio: None

Game Notes
La Salle | Temple

Listen to Coach Giannini's Podcast #6

Last Time Out
Tyreek Duren tied a career-high with 29 points (9-12 FG, 5-6 3PT, 6-6 FT) and Ramon Galloway posted his second double-double of the season (16 pts, 12 asts) in a 76-64 victory over Saint Joseph's at the Palestra on Saturday afternoon. The Explorers shot a season-high 62 percent (28-45) from the field and 63 percent (10-16) from behind the arc. As a team, La Salle was credited with 22 helpers, tied for its second-highest tally of the season.

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

His team's 2-0 mark last week:
Anytime you go 2-0 for a week in this league you have to be extremely pleased. St. Bonaventure was a real hard game. We were very fortunate to win. It's the kind of win that you really value as a coach. Coaches do a lot of preaching about mental toughness and making extra plays and physical toughness and those were the kind of things that we displayed in that game. So, I was really pleased with that. Saint Joseph's is obviously a big rivalry game and we played well from beginning to end. We had a stretch where we turned it over in the first half a few times in a row but it was never a lack of effort and we thought we played hard and we thought we shared the ball which is huge for us.

Ramon Galloway's recent surge:
I think that the key with Ramon is when he passes the ball extremely well. He's a proven scorer, he's a proven defender, and he has excellent physical abilities. When he starts to make plays for other people and make other people better and make our offense more productive besides his scoring, then he becomes a tremendously special player.

His team's steady improvement:
I think every coach wants to see their team improve. The interesting thing is that you're not going to improve your skill level, conditioning, or strength very much at all during the season and especially late in the year. You want to see improvement in the mental areas and that's where we've grown. A lot of these games are close so you're not going to do big things to win games. You're going to do small things to win games.

Scouting the Explorers
Galloway was recognized as A-10 Player of the Week and Big 5 Co-Player of the Week for his role in La Salle's victories over St. Bonaventure and Saint Joseph's last week. The senior poured in a game-high 23 points (6-16 FG, 4-9 3PT, 7-8 FT) in the Explorers' 69-66 overtime win at St. Bonaventure on Wednesday evening. He also dished out five assists and accounted for two steals in 40 minutes of action. Galloway ranks in the top five in the conference in points/game (17.3), steals/game (2.3), and three point field goals/game (2.8).

Duren comes in as the A-10's 12^th leading scorer (14.5 ppg) and his assist/turnover ratio (1.6) is good for seventh in the league. Tyrone Garland (12.0 ppg/2.1 apg) and Jerrell Wright (10.0 ppg/6.5 rpg) round out the Explorers averaging double figures on the season.

Steve Zack is the leading man on the glass for the Blue and Gold, pulling down 6.7/game along with pacing the squad in field goal percentage (.539). The sophomore has also notched a team-high 35 blocks on the year and has averaged 1.9 blocks/game over the last seven contests.

Sam Mills and D.J. Peterson continue to provide defensive stability and efficient scoring for the Explorers. The duo has combined to net 19 of their last 32 (59 percent) three point field goals dating back to La Salle's win over George Washington (2/2).

As a team, the Explorers rank first in the A-10 in three point field goal percentage defense (.304) and second in steals/game (8.3) and free throw percentage (.739). They come in third in scoring offense (72.2 ppg), scoring margin (+7.6), three point field goal percentage (.373), and turnover margin (+3.21).

Did You Know?


Scouting the Owls
Temple's last five games have been decided by exactly one point, the longest such streak in NCAA history. The Owls have posted a 3-2 record over that stretch, most recently beating Massachusetts 83-82 in Amherst on Saturday afternoon.

Senior guard Khalif Wyatt's enters the game as the A-10's leading scorer at 19.8 points/game (16^th nationally). The guard also ranks seventh in the conference with 4.0 assists/game. The Owls are led on the boards by sophomore Anthony Lee (11.2 ppg), who ranks sixth in the conference with 7.5 rebounds/game. Senior Scootie Randall comes in at 10.9 points/game and 6.0 rebounds/game.

As a team, Temple ranks tenth in the nation in turnovers/game (10.8) and first in conference in assist-turnover ratio (1.4). The Owls rank third in the A-10 in assists/game (14.6) and steals/game (8.2).

Up Next
The Explorers travel to Rhode Island for a Sunday tilt with the Rams at 2 PM. The game will be broadcast in Philadelphia on Comcast SportsNet.