PHILADELPHIA - The La Salle women's basketball squad takes the show on the road this weekend as the Explorers pay Xavier a visit on Sunday, with tipoff at 2 p.m. at the Cintas Center.

La Salle Explorers (7-15, 3-4 Atlantic 10) @ Xavier Musketeers (7-15, 1-7 Atlantic 10)
Cintas Center | Cincinnati, Ohio
Sun, Feb. 10, 2013 | 2:00 p.m.

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The Match-Up

The Explorers swept the Musketeers last season, first in the regular season (63-51) at Tom Gola Arena and then again in the opening round of the Atlantic 10 Tournament (52-49 at Hagan Arena). Brittany Wilson drained 28 points in the regular season meeting to lead all scorers and former Explorers Nadia Duncan and Jada Payne added 14 and 10, respectively. Three Muskies hit double figures, led by Shatyra Hawkes' 17 points. In the A-10 Tournament, Wilson drained 18 points and pulled down nine rebounds to help lead the Explorers to a down-to-the-wire 52-49 win to advanced to the quarterfinal round. Xavier owns a 24-10 all-time advantage over La Salle, and the Explorers are looking for their first win at the Cintas Center.

The matchup presents an interesting dichotomy this season, pitting a team that wins more on the road (La Salle) against a team that wins more at home (Xavier). Five of the seven Explorer wins have come away from Gola Arena while five of the seven Musketeer wins have come at the Cintas Center.

Scouting the Explorers

The Explorers dropped a 69-49 decision to Fordham on Wednesday night, thanks to a late first-half run by the Rams after a largely back-and-forth affair early on in the game. Shanel Harrison led the squad with 13 points and Ebonee Jones added 11. Karynda DuPree pulled down a team-best eight rebounds while chipping in six points and two assists. Michea Bryant returned to the lineup on Wednesday night after missing three games due to injury. She chipped in five points in 18 minutes.

The squad played its second straight game without Atlantic 10 leading scorer Brittany Wilson (18.3 ppg, 6.5 rpg), who is also on the injury list as day-to-day. In addition to leading the conference in scoring, she ranks in the top 20 in rebounding, field goal percentage, free throw percentage, assists, steals, offensive rebounding and three-point field goals made.

Harrison is second on the squad in scoring, averaging 11.1 points per game and hitting double digits in the last five straight games. She poured in a career-high 29 points in that stretch in the Explorers' win over Temple on Jan. 27. Her 11.1 ppg earns her a spot on the Atlantic 10's top 20 scorers list as well.

Jones rounds out the top three scorers with 10.7 ppg. She has also hit double figures in the last four straight games, averaging 16.3 ppg in that four-game stretch dating back to the Temple contest on Jan. 27. She scored 21 points against both Temple and George Washington, both times just one shy of tying her career high of 22 set earlier this season at Central Connecticut State.

Jordan Mosley (6.0 ppg) and Bryant (4.2 ppg) are second and third in assists as they chip in 1.4 apg and 1.7 apg, respectively. DuPree leads the team with 32 blocked shots (1.7 bpg), which ranks her seventh in the Atlantic 10 in that category.

As a team, the Explorers rank third in the Atlantic 10 in both blocked shots (4.9 bpg) and offensive rebounding (14.9 rpg). They also rank in the top half of the league in steals (6th; 8.5 spg), turnover margin (7th; +0.77) and free throw percentage (7th; 70.4%). The squad scores 55.4 ppg while yielding 62.7 ppg.

Scouting the Musketeers

Amber Gray drained a game-high 21 points in Xavier's 78-68 loss to No. 18 Dayton on Thursday, and two other Musketeers also reached double figures against the league's top team. Aliyah Zantt added 14 points and Briana Glover chipped in 13 against the Flyers.

Xavier has struggled in the A-10 this season, going just 1-7 in league play so far. The Musketeers' lone A-10 win this season is a 58-50 triumph over St. Bonaventure on Feb. 3.

This record is despite the squad being one of the top shooting teams in the conference. The squad ranks fourth overall in field goal percentage, averaging close to 40 percent from the field. However, they rank 14th out of 16 in field goal percent defense, yielding over 63 points per game to opponents.

The team's big win of the season came in early December when the Musketeers overcame Cincinnati, 69-67, in double overtime in a Crosstown Classic thriller.

Gray is the lone Musketeer averaging double figures, scoring 11.3 ppg. She is also second on the squad with 6.0 rebounds per game. Ashley Wanninger, the only player to start all 22 games this season, chips in 9.8 ppg. Jessica Pachko and Shatyra Hawkes add 9.1 ppg each, while Pachko leads the squad in rebounding with 6.5 boards per outing. Hawkes ranks ninth in the Atlantic 10 with a team-best 3.7 assists per game.

Next Up

The Explorers return home on Wednesday (2/13), hosting Saint Louis in a noon time tipoff at Tom Gola Arena.