Men's Basketball | January 28, 2022

DAVIDSON, N.C. – The La Salle men's basketball team leave the comfort of Philadelphia for Saturday's matchup, battling the league leading Davidson WIldcats in a 12 p.m. showdown inside the Belk Arena.

The game can be watched on national television, aired on USA Network with Jason Knapp and John Giannini on the call. Kale Beers will have a radio broadcast of the game that can be found on the GoExplorers website.
 
NEWS & NOTES

• Saturday's matchup in Davidson, N.C. sees the Explorers take on the league-leading Wildcats inside the Belk Arena. The Explorers look for their first win against Davidson on the road, two of their three series wins coming in Tom Gola Arena.
• La Salle left the city of Philadelphia for just the fourth time of the season, just the sixth game on the road for the Explorers. The Explorers look to grab their first win outside of Philly.
• Saturdays have been the most prosperous day for the Explorers, five of their six wins on the season coming on the weekend.
• La Salle looks to break a three-game losing streak, falling in tough outcomes to Rhode Island on the road and a home bout against Richmond after securing their first win in A-10 play against Philly rivals Saint Joseph's. In their most recent matchup, La Salle saw a 16-point second half lead vanish, falling to UMass midweek.
• Wednesday's game will be the fifth for the Explorers in the span of 13 days, the rest of the conference schedule seeing no more than three days in between contests.
• Making a 20-4 run on either side of the halftime break on Wednesday, the Explorers built as much as a 16 point lead against the Minutemen. A 13-0 UMass run nearly cut the deficit, and with the game tied at 71 the visitors scored the final six points to play spoiler inside Tom Gola Arena.
• Josh Nickelberry added a team-high 18 points in the loss. Jack Clark continues his steady progression, finishing with 16 points on the night - 10 in the first half. Clifton Moore finished with 14 points, the seventh straight game Moore tallied double-digits.

 
SCOUTING DAVIDSON

• After stringing out an NCAA leading 15-straight wins, the Davidson Wildcats finally saw their first loss in over two months as VCU escaped Belk Arena with a 70-68 win to blemish the previously perfect conference record.
• One of the premier scoring offenses in the conference, the Wildcats tally 76.8 points per game while knocking down nearly half of their attempts (.495). Davidson has four scorers averaging 10+ per game, led by Hyunjung Lee's 16.0 ppg. Foster Loyer adds 15.6 points and team-high 59 assists, while Luka Brajkovic and Michael Jones add 14.4 and 12.6 points respectively. All four shoot the deep ball at better than 40%.
• The Wildcats do a good job securing the ball, only conceding 10 turnovers per game. Davidson shares the ball well, averaging 15.4 assists per contest.

 
MR. 500

• With two minutes left on the clock and the Explorers trailing by four to UMass, Jack Clark stepped to the line and knocked down a pair of free throws. Not only did it cut the deficit to two (later wiped away by a jumper from Clark), but it also gave the redshirt junior his 500th career point in his 50th career game.
• Clark becomes the first on the team to eclipse the 500 mark.

 
Jack Clark......... 500
Christian Ray.... 399
Clifton Moore... 375
Jhamir Brickus.. 347
 
LEARNING TO CLOSE

• Despite a 6-11 record, the Explorers can look back to a few games that could have easily swung the balance into their favor. La Salle has held a double-digit lead in five of its losses.
• Four of those losses saw the Explorers hold their largest lead of the game in the second half, Rhode Island the only outlier in which the Explorers had their biggest margin in the opening 20 minutes.

 
STATS OF SIGNIFICANCE

• La Salle is 0-9 when trailing with five minutes left in the game, having been unable to come back from late deficits thus far.
• Fortunes haven't favored the Explorers in midweek matchups or in night games. La Salle is 1-7 in games on Tuesday-Thursday and 1-8 in games played at 6 p.m. or later. The one anomaly of both of those stats is a 81-55 rout over Fairleigh Dickinson on a Tuesday night contest.

 
MOORE BUCKETS

• Clifton Moore has proven himself to be a menace on the defensive side of the ball, ranking 26th in the nation in blocks with 2.59 blocks per game. His six blocks against Army West Point, Moore recorded the most blocks in a game since November 20, 2010 when Aaric Murray recorded nine in a 79-74 win over Morgan State. The six blocks is fourth-most in program history.
• Clifton Moore is seventh in the league in scoring heading into the matchup with Davidson, averaging 17.6 points per game against conference foes. The forward has also grabbed 59 rebounds in his last seven games, good for third in the league at 8.4 per contest. Moore is shooting 56.4% from the field in that span, the 6th-best mark in league play of those who have taken 40+ attempts. Moore has taken the second-most field goals (91) in league play, only Gibson Jimerson attempting more (94). Known more for his rim protection entering the season, Moore has 18 blocks in his last seven games, the sixth best average in the Atlantic 10 at 2.6 per game.
• Moore has scored in double-figures in his last seven games, nine times in his last 11.

 
JACK OF ALL TRADES

• The fourth-year man regained his rhythm after an early season slump, going 6-9 from the field for 18 points and eight rebounds in a rout over FDU.
• Clark produced his best game of the season in a Philly matchup, taking over with 21 points against St. Joe's to tie a career-high in points. Clark scored 18 of his 21 in the second half, also adding six rebounds in the rivalry win.
• The Cheltenham native produced a 13 point, eight rebound effort against Richmond, 11 of his 13 points coming in the first half. 10 of his 16 points against UMass also came in the first half, scoring four of his six points in the second half against the Minutemen in the final two minutes of the game.

 
PHILLY LIVIN'

• The Explorers spent their nonconference campaign in and around the city of Philadelphia. Only playing three road games before A-10 action, the Explorers traveled no further than Lewisburg, Pa. for any of their away trips.
• The Fordham Rams broke a five-game win streak inside Tom Gola Arena, the only other loss coming in the home opener in overtime to Sacred Heart. Since then, the Explorers have went on a five-game losing streak at home in conference play.
• La Salle leave the city for just the fourth time in its opening 18 games to start the season when it faces Davidson on Saturday.

 
MAMADOU ON THE MARK

• In his first start as an Explorer, Doucoure tallied 12 points (most since his freshman season at Rutgers) and added eight rebounds in defeat to Fordham.
• In his seven starts for the Explorers, Doucoure has tallied 32 rebounds, nine more rebounds than in his 10 games off the bench. Since his insertion, Doucoure has also knocked down 50% of his attempts from the field.

 
GETTIN' JIGGY WITH IT

• Jhamir "Jig" Brickus has now scored in double-digits in six of his 15 games this season, scoring at least eight points in 10 games for an 8.5 season average.
• Brickus grabbed 15 points and six assists in the loss to the Blue Hens, both proving to be a season high. His bucket with just over nine seconds left put the Explorers up one point, but eventually proved not enough after falling in overtime.
• Jig scored eight points against UMass, also adding a season-high eight assists. Five of his helpers came in the opening half, falling two shy of his career-best mark.

 
SERIES HISTORY

• One of the youngest rivalries for La Salle in the A-10, the Explorers meet the Wildcats for the 12th time on Saturday.
• Overall, the Explorers are 3-8 against Davidson.
• The Explorers have yet to win at the Belk Arena, 0-3 all time in Davidson.
• The hosts are on a two-game win streak in the series, defeating the Explorers in the lone matchup each of the last two seasons.
• Last time in Davidson, the Wildcats posted a 74-49 win over the Explorers.
• No one on the La Salle lineup has recorded a point inside the Belk Arena, Christian Ray the only Explorer to have stepped foot on Davidson's court.
• La Salle is 1-3 against the Wildcats under Coach Howard.