Men's Basketball | January 2, 2016

PHILADELPHIA – The La Salle men's basketball team opens Atlantic 10 play on Sunday when it hosts Massachusetts. Tip-off is 5 PM and the game will be broadcast nationally on NBC Sports Network.  

Massachusetts Minutemen (7-5, 0-0 A-10) at La Salle Explorers (4-6, 0-0 A-10)
Sunday, January 3 | 5 PM | Tom Gola Arena

TV: NBC Sports Network (Rich Lerner, Dalen Cuff)
Live Video | Download the NBC Extra App to view on your phone or tablet
Live Audio
Live Stats | Media Stats
Live Tweets @GoExplorers 
Buy Tickets

Game Notes
La Salle | Massachusetts

Last Time Out
Junior Cleon Roberts had a career-high 30 points and classmate Jordan Priceadded 25 but an undermanned Explorer club was unable to beat Florida Gulf Coast, falling 86-77, at Alico Arena on New Year's Eve. La Salle played with just six scholarship players as Rohan Brown (knee),Dusan Majstorovic (sick) and Yevgen Sakhniuk (sick) all missed the game.

Roberts, a Miami native playing in a homecoming game of sorts, bested his previous career-high of 20. He shot 10-for-14 from the field and added five rebounds. Price led the team with eight boards to go along with his 25 points.

Last Meeting With UMass
The La Salle men's basketball team advanced to the quarterfinals of the Atlantic 10 Tournament thanks to a 76-69 win over Massachusetts on Thursday afternoon. 

Redshirt sophomore Jordan Price tied the La Salle Atlantic 10 Tournament record with 28 points to lead the Explorers. Price shot 6-16 from the field and 14-18 from the free throw line, including 10 free throws in the second half to help La Salle close out the win. Steve Zack finished with 13 rebounds and 12 assists for his fourth double-double of the season. Zack also finished with a game high three blocks to help spearhead the Explorers defensive effort that forced 11 Massachusetts turnovers in addition to six team blocks.
 
Scouting the Explorers
• Rohan Brown (knee), Dusan Majstorovic (sick) and Yevgen Sakhniuk (sick) did not appear in Thursday's game at Florida Gulf Coast, leaving the Explorers with just six scholarship players against the Eagles.

• The Explorers return to Gola Arena for the first time in almost a month. The last home game there was on December 5 vs. Drexel.

• Jordan Price enjoys playing games versus UMass it seems. He has scored 12, 30 and 28 points in three games against the Minutemen for an average of 23.3 ppg.

• Jordan Price is currently 12th in the nation in scoring at 22.8 points per game. He is second in the Atlantic 10 behind Jack Gibbs of Davidson (24.6).

• Cleon Roberts, playing 2.5 hours from his native Miami, scored a career-high 30 points at Florida Gulf Coast (12/31). His previous career-high was 20 points, set four different times.

• Price needs only 59 points to reach 1,000 for his collegiate career. He scored 145 points at Auburn and has 796 as an Explorer.

• Johnnie Shuler leads the A-10 and is 6th nationally in minutes per game (37.3).
• Tony Washington is second in the A-10 and 29th nationally in blocks per game (2.5). 

La Salle-UMass Connections
La Salle assistant coach Sean Neal is a Springfield Cathedral graduate, as is UMass head coach Derek Kellogg.

Lou Roe, a member of the UMass coaching staff, is an Atlantic City, N.J. native.

Rashaan Holloway, a freshman for the Minutemen, is a South Jersey native (Elmer, N.J. / Schalick). 

Scouting the Minutemen
UMass (7-5) has won two out of three games after dropping three straight. The Minutemen have two of the top scorers in the conference in Trey Davis (19.5 ppg.) and Donte Clark (17.4). Davis and Clark rank fourth and seventh in the A-10 in scoring, respectively. Jabarie Hinds isn't far behind at 15.8 ppg. Davis is 12 points short of scoring 1,000 for his career. UMass is third in the A-10 in offense (79.6) but 13th in points allowed (76.4).

Up Next
La Salle visits Fordham on Wednesday at 7 PM.