Men's Basketball | November 20, 2015

PHILADELPHIA – The La Salle men's basketball team returns to action on Monday as it welcomes Lafayette to Tom Gola Arena at 7 p.m.
 
Lafayette Leopards at La Salle Explorers
Monday, November 23 | 7 PM | Tom Gola Arena
 
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Game Notes
La Salle | Lafayette

Pre-Game Information
The new Explorer GameDay food court opens at 5:30 PM in the Hall of Athletes area of the Hayman Center. Adults cost $15 and children under 12 are $8. 
 
Last Time Out
Redshirt junior Jordan Price scored 28 points and classmate Cleon Roberts added 18 points to lead the Explorers to a 73-60 victory over Rider on Tuesday night. Sophomore Johnnie Shuler added 14 points and pulled down a team-high eight rebounds. La Salle used a 15-2 run late in the first half to turn a 22-21 lead into a 37-23 advantage at halftime.

All-Time Series
This will be the 46^th all-time matchup between the two programs, with the Explorers holding a 34-11 advantage. La Salle has won the past six meetings at home between the two programs. The Explorers and Leopards were former rivals in the ECC and MAC Conferences and met in the final of the 1975 ECC Conference Tournament with La Salle taking the 92-85 victory.
 
Last Meeting With Lafayette
The Explorers opened up their 2011-12 season with a 79-53 victory over the Leopards. Tyreek Duren scored a game-high 17 points in the win. Earl Pettis (16), Taylor Dunn (12) and Sam Mills (10) also ended up in double figures for points on the day. La Salle was able to limit Lafayette to just 36% shooting on the game. The Explorers also were hot from behind the arc, shooting 56.3% from three-point range. Current La Salle Director of Player Development, Matt Sheehan, saw the court in the final minute of action.

Scouting the Explorers
- La Salle leads the Atlantic 10 shooting .821 (32-for-39) from the free throw stripe this season and ranks sixth nationally.
 
- Redshirt junior Jordan Price has scored 27 and 28 points respectively in the Explorers two games so far this season. Price has the highest average of any Atlantic 10 player who has played multiple games this season, averaging 27.5 points per contest. He ranks fifth in the nation in scorign. 
 
- Sophomore Yevgen Sakhniuk has shot 7-for-8 to open up the season. This is good enough to lead the Atlantic 10 in field goal percentage at .875.
 
-Redshirt Junior Cleon Roberts has gone on an impressive run to open the season from behind the arc. Roberts is 6-for-10 in three-point field goals to rank fifth in the league with a .600 three-point percentage.
 
-Redshirt sophomore Amar Stukes has taken care of the ball to open the season. He ranks third in the league, averaging 5.0 assists per contest and third in assists to turnover ratio at 5.0 having only turned the ball over twice.
 
-Sophomore Johnnie Shuler leads the team having pulled down an average of 6.5 rebounds per contest. Shuler is tied for 10^th in the A-10 in rebounding and is the only player sub 6 foot in the top ten and one of only three guards on the list.
 
- As a result of the injuries and three players sitting out due to NCAA transfer regulations the Explorers have been forced to use a short bench so far this season. La Salle has only used seven players all year with three players; Shuler (38.5 mpg), Price (37.0 mpg), Roberts (36.5 mpg), ranking in the top six in the A-10 in minutes played.
 
- La Salle has won 24 of its last 28 non-conference regular season games (.857) at Gola, including nine of the last 11. The only losses were Central Connecticut State (11/18/12), Manhattan (11/9/13), #10/9 Villanova (12/3/14) and American (12/16/14).
 
La Salle-Lafayette Connections
Multiple members of the Lafayette coaching staff have experience coaching against the Explorers from previous coaching stops. Head Coach Fran O'Hanlon has a 1-4 record against the Explorers as Leopards head coach and is a 1970 Villanova graduate. Associate Head Coach Pat Doherty is a 2004 Lafayette graduate where he was a walk-on guard for the Leopards going 1-1 against La Salle in two meetings. Matt Blue served as an assistant at Hartford where he faced La Salle three times going 0-3 and finally assistant Jimmy Fenerty served as a graduate assistant at Temple last season as the Owls grabbed a 58-57 win over La Salle at The Palestra.
 
Scouting the Leopards
-Lafayette takes on NJIT on Saturday before heading to La Salle on Monday.
 
-The Leopards fell to fellow A-10 member George Washington in their first game of the season, 85-76, in Washington D. C.
 
-Lafayette picked up its first win of the season, a 87-86 overtime win over Saint Peter's this past Sunday. Junior Nick Lindner scored the game's final six points to erase an 81-86 hole the Leopards were in with 1:03 remaining in overtime. Lindner finished with a game-high 22 points.
 
-Lindner leads the team averaging 24.5 points per contest through two games. Sophomore Matt Klinewski leads the team averaging 6.5 rebounds per game.
 
-The Leopards have been efficient in taking advantage to trip to the charity stripe. Lafayette is shooting .887 (47-for-53) from the line this season. 

Up Next
The Explorers hit the road for the first time this season as they travel to Penn on Wednesday with tip slated for 7 p.m. before heading to Rowan on Saturday.