Men's Basketball | December 20, 2022
PHILADELPHIA — The La Salle men's basketball team has its eyes on getting back to the .500 mark and ending a two-game skid on Wednesday when it hosts Lafayette at Tom Gola Arena at TruMark Financial Center. Tip-off is set for 2 p.m.
The game will be televised on ESPN+, with Kale Beers and Bron Holland delivering the play-by-play and color. Explorers fans can also listen to the broadcast through GoExplorers.com/watch. In addition, Explorers fans can follow the team on Twitter
@LaSalle_MBB and Instagram
@lasallembb.
All La Salle faculty and staff members can attend the event free of charge by downloading tickets here. Limit is two tickets per faculty/staff member.
The game will also feature a La Salle ornament giveaway.
NEWS & NOTES
- The Explorers will go up against the Leopards for the 47th time in program history. La Salle leads the series with a 35-11 record and has won seven of the last 10 meetings since 1981.
- The Explorers are coming off a 78-60 loss to Cincinnati last Saturday in their first out-of-state road trip against a single opponent this year. In that game, the Explorers managed to trim a 17-point halftime deficit down to nine in the first four minutes of the second half before the Bearcats built the lead back up and pulled away for the win.
- The Lafayette game is the last home game for the Explorers before the calendar flips to 2023.
- The Explorers will look to go 2-0 against Patriot League teams this season after also beating Bucknell, 82-72, on Dec. 6 at Tom Gola Arena. The win over the Bison was also La Salle's last win.
- Khalil Brantley and Josh Nickelberry have made the Explorers go this season. The dynamic duo in the backcourt has combined for 24.8 points per game, with Brantley scoring 12.8 per game and Nickelberry chipping in 12.0 per contest.
- 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 585-331 career record.
- Dunphy has done well against Lafayette as a head coach. When he was with Penn and Temple, Dunphy's teams combined to post a 16-2 record against the Leopards (15-2 with Penn, 1-0 with Temple).
COMING OFF THE BENCH
- The Explorers have one of the top benches in the country, as they are ranked 71st in the NCAA in bench points per game at 26.55 points per game.
- The Explorers have seen their bench score over 30 points in a game four times this season, including three of their last four games against Penn (45), Bucknell (37), and Cincinnati (31), respectively.
BUCKETS FOR NICKELBERRY
- Nickelberry has been able to score plenty of buckets this season, as he ranks 10th in the A-10 in three-pointers made per game at 2.3, 12th in free throw percentage at .816, and 22nd in the conference in points per game at 12.0.
- Nickelberry put together his best scoring performance of the season in the first game of the Jamaica Classic, 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 20 career contests. Nickelberry also has led the team in scoring 10 times in his career at La Salle.
- 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.
DOUBLE THE DRAME, DOUBLE THE EXPEIRENCE
- Transfers Fousseyni and Hassan Drame will look to rely on their experience from last season. That's because the twin forwards helped Saint Peter's make history last season by becoming the first 15th seed to reach the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament.
- In their first 11 appearances with the Explorers, Hassan and Fousseyni have performed at a high level. Fousseyni has scored 96 points, 22 of which came off the bench in the win against Queens, and he is tied for 16th in the A-10 in blocks per game at 0.9. Hassan has had 95 points as well, 17 of which came against Villanova, and leads the team in rebounds per game at 5.6.
SCOUTING LAFAYETTE
- The Leopards are 1-11 on the season after dropping their last seven games in a row. The Leopards' lone win this season was a 55-50 victory against Central Connecticut State on Nov. 19.
- The Leopards' 11 losses were to Miami (67-54), St. John's (83-68), Saint Joseph's (63-59), University of Maryland Baltimore County (71-63), Penn (74-68 in OT), Penn State (70-57), Drexel (64-56), Cornell (73-68), Princeton (69-58), Quinnipiac (76-63), and Columbia (57-45), respectively.
- The Leopards have been paced by Leo O'Boyle, Kyle Jenkins, and CJ Fulton in the scoring department. O'Boyle leads the way with 12.6 points per game. Jenkins follows him at 11.7 points per game and Fulton has chipped in 10.5 points per game.
- Lafayette is led by Mike Jordan, who is in his first season as head coach for the school after taking over for the legendary Fran O'Hanlon, who retired at the end of the 2021-22 season.
