Men's Basketball | January 15, 2019

PHILADELPHIA - The La Salle University men's basketball team continues its three-game homestand on Wednesday evening when it takes on George Washington at Tom Gola Arena at TruMark Financial Center. The first 1,000 fans in attendance will receive a free La Salle Explorers phone wallet, and will also get a raffle ticket to earn a chance at prizes that will be awarded throughout the night. All hot dogs will be priced at $1 as part of our Dollar Dog Night promotion.

NEWS & NOTES
•The Explorers are coming off a hard-fought 71-64 loss at the hands of Atlantic 10 preseason favorite Saint Louis on Jan. 12.
•La Salle came back from a 10-point halftime deficit to tie the game at 58-58 with five minutes left, but could not get over the hump in its comeback quest.
•Junior Isiah Deas and freshman Jack Clark each had 14 points to lead La Salle, who shot 50.0 percent from the field in the second half to help in its effort.
•Graduate student Pookie Powell was the third player to score in double figures for the Explorers with 12 points.
•Clark also finished with three rebounds and a season-best three steals off the bench.
•Saint Louis entered the game as the A-10's top rebounding team and held a 16-7 advantage on second-chance points despite the Explorers outboarding the Billikens in the second half, 18-15.
•The Explorers shot well from three-point range against SLU, knocking down 9 of their 14 attempts from deep, but made 9-of-14 free-throw tries, well below their season average (79.3% entering the game).
•Deas hit four three-pointers and is currently third in the Atlantic 10 in three-point field goal percentage at .425.
•Powell has scored in double figures in 11 of the 12 games he has played this season and is fifth in scoring in the Atlantic 10 at 17.3 points per game.
•Looking ahead to Saturday, La Salle University will honor its Hall of Athletes Class of 2019 at halftime of the men's basketball game against Rhode Island.
•Included in the class of the 1968-69 men's basketball team that featured four players who would go on to play in the NBA - Larry Cannon, Ken Durrett, Fatty Taylor and Bernie Williams.
•That team went 23-1 and is widely considered the best team in Philadelphia Big 5 history. By year's end, the squad was ranked No. 2 in the Associated Press poll behind national champion UCLA.

SCOUTING GEORGE WASHINGTON
•The Colonials stand at 5-11 overall and 1-2 in A-10 play following a 76-56 loss at home to Richmond on Saturday.
•Three GW players are averaging in double figures for the season, led by DJ Williams who is posting 12.9 points per game.
•Arnaldo Toro, the team's leading rebounder through seven games, will miss the remainder of the season due to injury.

DEAS FOR THREES
•Junior Isiah Deas has improved his three-point field goal percentage greatly from the start of his career through this season.
•As a freshman, Deas 29.2 percent on a limited number of attempts (24) and last season, the 6-6 guard shot a similar percentage (29.1%) on 117 tries.
•This year, Deas has already connected on 34 three-pointers to match his total from all of last year and is shooting 42.5% to rank third in the A-10.