Men's Basketball | November 19, 2022

MONTEGO BAY, JAMAICA — The La Salle men's basketball team looks to end its time in Jamaica with a win by beating Georgetown in the consolation game of the Jersey Mike's Jamaica Classic on Sunday at the Montego Bay Convention Centre. Tip-off is set for noon.
 
The game will be televised on CBS Sports Network, with Steve Wolf and Dave Ryan on the call. Explorers fans can listen to the broadcast through GoExplorers.com/watch or follow the team on Twitter @LaSalle_MBB and Instagram @lasallembb.
 
NEWS & NOTES

• The Explorers will go up against the Hoyas for the 26th time in program history. The Explorers hold a 15-10 lead in the all-time series, but the two squads have not played each other since Dec. 10, 2016 when Georgetown came away with a 93-78 win at the Hoophall Miami Invitational in Miami, Fla.
• The Explorers are coming off a 75-63 loss to Wake Forest in the opening round on Friday. Senior guard Josh Nickelberry led the way for La Salle, scoring a game-high 26 points.
• The Explorers are led by head coach Fran Dunphy, the all-time winningest coach in Philadelphia Big 5 history. A 1970 La Salle graduate, Dunphy sports a 582-327 career record. With La Salle's win over Wagner on Nov. 12, Dunphy became the first Big 5 coach to win a game with three Big 5 teams (won 310 games with Penn and 270 with Temple).
• La Salle will look to start the season with wins in three of its first five games for the first time since producing two straight 3-2 starts in 2016-17 and 2017-18.
• The Explorers will be looking to produce a winning season for the first time since 2016-17, when they went 15-15 and 9-9 in Atlantic 10 play.

EXPLORING THE WORLD

• The Explorers' trip to Jamaica is their first one outside of the U.S. and its territories since December 2017, when they played in the Basketball Hall of Fame Belfast Classic against Towson and Holy Cross in Belfast, Ireland. The Explorers fell to Towson, 67-60, but bounced back to defeat Holy Cross, 58-54, in the second game.
• The Explorers have played internationally two other times in their storied history. The first time was in the 1990-91 season when they played Baylor and Idaho in the Daiwa Ball in Tokyo, Japan. The second time was 20 years later in 2010-11 when they went to Cancun, Mexico to play in the Cancun Classic against Providence and Missouri.
• The Explorers have done well in their seven games played internationally, going 4-3. Along with the split of their two games in Ireland in 2017, they swept Baylor (87-82) and Idaho (83-61), respectively, while in Japan. In Mexico, they topped Providence, 84-73, but fell to Missouri by an 83-71 count.
• The Explorers have also traveled to the U.S. Virgin Islands (four times) and Puerto Rico (once). In the U.S. Virgin Islands, they played in the Paradise Jam Tournament, going 4-7 in their 11 total games in that event. In Puerto Rico, they lost all three games played there to open 1995-96 season.

BUCKETS FOR NICKELBERRY

• Nickelberry opened the Jamaica Classic with his best scoring performance of the season, dropping 26 on ACC foe Wake Forest. In the game, Nickelberry shot at an efficient clip, going 6-for 11 from three-point range, 7-for-14 from the field and 6-for-6 from the free-throw line.
• Nickelberry produced the best two-game scoring span of his Explorer career after pouring in 42 combined points in the first two games of the season against Villanova and Wagner. For the second straight season opener, Nickelberry dropped 22 points against the Wildcats on 7-of-12 shooting, including 5-for-9 from beyond the arc. Against Wagner, Nickelberry netted 20 points, 10 of which came from the free-throw line.
• The senior guard has seven career 20-point games and has scored in double figures in 17 career contests. Nickelberry also has led the team in scoring eight times in his time at La Salle.
• Nickelberry ranks sixth in the Atlantic-10 in points per game at 18.5.
• Nickelberry's best scoring performance of his career was 28 points against Holy Cross last season. Nickelberry also recorded a career-high eight rebounds against the Crusaders.

SCOUTING GEORGETOWN

• The Hoyas are 2-2 on the season after beating Coppin State (99-89 in OT) and Green Bay (92-58) in their first two games, then dropping their last two contests against Northwestern (75-63) and Loyola Marymount (84-66). Their loss against Loyola Marymount came in the first round of the Jamaica Classic.
• In their loss against Loyola Marymount, the Hoyas led, 42-32, before allowing 52 points to the Lions in the second half. The Hoyas also struggled on offense in the final 20 minutes, scoring only 24 points.
• The Hoyas have four players averaging double figures in scoring. Primo Spears leads the way at 20.3 points per game. Brandon Murray follows Spears at 15.3 ppg, Jay Heath is right behind him at 14.0, and Qudus Wahab rounds out the foursome at 11.8.
• Just like Dunphy for La Salle, the Hoyas are led by one of its most famous alums in head coach Patrick Ewing. A 1985 grad, Ewing was a three-time consensus First Team All-American (1983, 1984, 1985), leading the Hoyas to three NCAA Championship Game appearances and the 1984 National Championship title. Ewing sports a 70-86 career record as the Hoyas' head coach.