Men's Basketball | December 21, 2020

COLLEGE PARK, Md. - Having won three of its last four games, the La Salle University men's basketball will head to Maryland for the first time in 26 years for a matchup with the Terrapins Tuesday night on the Big Ten Network. Tipoff is scheduled for 7:00 p.m. 

NEWS & NOTES
•The Explorers came from behind and overcame a double-digit deficit to upend the Delaware Blue Hens on Saturday at Tom Gola Arena, 71-61.
•Senior David Beatty, who has scored in double figures in three straight games, tallied a season-best 18 points (6-10 FG) and sophomore Sherif Kenney chipped in a season-high 16 points (5-8 FG, 2-3 3PT).
•La Salle fell behind by 10 early and trailed for nearly the entire first half, but the Explorers outscored the Blue Hens 42-29 in the second half and used a 15-0 scoring run down the stretch to cap off the comeback win.
•Trailing 48-44 with 10:49 to go, the Explorers scored the next 15 points led by Beatty, who scored nine consecutive points during the run that left La Salle with a sudden 59- 48 advantage with 3:27 remaining.
•The Explorers went a perfect 8-for-8 from the free-throw line in the final minutes to seal the home victory.
•Freshman Jhamir Brickus scored a career-high 12 points (4-7 FG, 2-3 3PT) for his team-best fourth double-digit scoring effort of the season, while sophomore Christian Ray went a perfect 4-for-4 from the field with nine points.
•La Salle scored 21 points off 18 Delaware turnovers and held a 36-18 advantage in points in the paint as well as a 20-6 advantage in fast break points.

SCOUTING MARYLAND
•The Terrapins enter the matchup at 4-2 overall (4-1 at home) and 0-1 in the Big Ten.
•Despite having four games canceled, Maryland started the year 4-0 with wins over Old Dominion, Navy, Mount St. Mary's and Saint Peter's.
•Since then, the Terrapins have lost two in a row, dropping a 67-51 decision at Clemson and falling to Rutgers at home, 74-60.
•In last Monday's defeat to nationally-ranked Rutgers, Donta Scott tallied 20 points and eight rebounds, but Maryland let a 28-27 halftime lead slip away.
•Three Terrapins average double-digit points in Eric Avala (13.2), Scott (13.0) and Hakim Hart (10.2), while Scott adds a team-best 7.2 rebounds per game.

ALL-TIME SERIES VS. MARYLAND (MARYLAND LEADS 3-0)
•This will be just the fourth all-time meeting between the La Salle Explorers and the Maryland Terrapins.
•It will be the first time the two have played in 26 years.
•Maryland has won all three meetings in the series, including two on its home court.
•The two teams first met back in 1983, a 96-83 home win for then sixth-ranked Maryland.
•La Salle and Maryland played a home-and-home during the 1992-93 and 93-94 seasons, with the Terrapins defeating the Explorers at the Philadelphia Civic Center in 1992 and on their home court in 1994 as the ninth-ranked team in the nation.

BENEFITING FROM BEATTY
•Senior David Beatty has gotten better and better on offense each and every game as the season has progressed.
•In fact, Beatty has improved his scoring output in each of the first seven games of the season and has scored in double figures in each of his last three contests.
•In the 58-48 win at Drexel, Beatty went 4-for-6 from the field with 11 points.
•On Wednesday vs. UMass, he put together 17 points over a season-high 31 minutes while hitting 7-of-12 shots from the field and 2-of-5 three-pointers.
•In Saturday's win over Delaware, Beatty put forth his best game of the season with a season-high 18 points on 6-for-10 shooting while adding two steals and a block.
•Over La Salle's last four games, in which they have gone 3-1, Beatty is averaging 13.8 points per game, including 17.5 per contest over the last two, on an efficient 54.1 percent shooting from the floor while also hitting 43.8 percent of his three-point attempts.
•Last season's leading scorer at 10.7 points per game, Beatty has taken over the team lead in scoring this season as well with 10.4 points per contest and has started in all seven games.

MR. EFFICIENT
•Freshman guard Jhamir Brickus has already proved to be a reliable member of the backcourt in just his first season with the Explorers, getting the starting nod in each of the last five games.
•Brickus is third in the Atlantic 10 in three-point field goal percentage, hitting on 60 percent of his attempts from downtown.
•He is also tied for fourth in the league in field goal percentage, making a team-best 61.5 percent of his shots from the floor. 
•The Coatesville, Pa. native has scored in double figures four times already this season, doing so in each of the first three games of his career, netting 11 at St. John's, 10 vs. Saint Peter's and 11 at Army, and scoring a career-high 12 points in the win over Delaware.
•He took on more point guard duties in the win over Lincoln (Pa.) and delivered a season-high eight assists over 30 minutes of action.
•The rookie has been a menace on defense as well as he leads the team with 1.7 steals per game, recording 2+ steals in four games already.

DEFENSE, DEFENSE, DEFENSE
•La Salle has built a reputation as being a stingy defensive team under head coach Ashley Howard in his third season at the helm.
•Already this season, La Salle ranks 14th in the nation with 5.6 blocked shots per game, which leads the Atlantic 10.
•La Salle is third in the Atlantic 10 in scoring defense, limiting opponents to just 66.1 points per game, and the Explorers are 11th in the nation with a 15.5 block percentage.
•The Explorers have shown their trademark perimeter defense as well, holding opponents to 30.8 percent shooting from beyond the arc.
•The 70-point plateau was a key indicator of success for La Salle in 2019-20 -- if the Explorers held an opponent to under 70 points, they were 12-1. So far this season, La Salle is 3-2 when limiting opponents to less than 70.