Men's Basketball | February 18, 2022

PHILADELPHIA – The La Salle men's basketball continues their four-game road trip on Saturday afternoon, battling UMass inside the Mullins Center in an Atlantic 10 rematch from earlier in the season.
 
The Explorers (7-16, 2-11 A-10) look to avenge the loss to the Minutemen (11-13, 4-8 A-10) inside Tom Gola Arena earlier this year, battling in a noon matchup on ESPN+. An audio broadcast with Kale Beers is also available on the GoExplorers website.
 
NEWS & NOTES

• The Explorers and Minutemen meet for the second time on the 2021-22 campaign, last seeing each other inside Tom Gola Arena in TruMark Financial Center in late January.
• Saturday's hosts got the better of the Explorers in the first meeting, overcoming a double-digit deficit to surge past La Salle. The Blue and Gold look to avenge its loss when meeting at the Mullins Center for the noon contest.
• The Explorers look to move back into the win column, suffering three straight defeats after knocking off George Mason at home on Feb. 5.
• La Salle looks to earn its first win on the road in a four-game road stretch, facing the third opponent in eight days in UMass. The Explorers are 1-8 on the road this season, having yet to win a game outside of Philadelphia.
• The Explorers come off a losing effort against a Billiken team that caught fire, shooting a staggering 64% from the field and 60% from deep to help Saint Louis cruise to a 90-64 home victory against La Salle on Wednesday evening.
• Clifton Moore enters into the stratosphere of La Salle greats, tying Lionel Simmons for fifth place in most blocks in a season after registering four in the defeat to Saint Louis. Moore also led the team with 20 points in defeat, his 13th straight game with double-digit scoring.
• Jack Clark added 18 points as the only other Explorer to end the night against the Billikens in double-figures, scoring all 18 of his points in the opening half.

 
SCOUTING UMASS

• Massachusetts returns home on Saturday after suffering defeat to St. Bonaventure, falling to 11-13 on the year and 4-8 in A-10 play. Over the course of the last nine games, the Minutemen have alternated between wins and losses, having yet to drop or win two-straight since early January.
• The Minutemen are one of the most prolific three point shooting teams in the country, standing in 7th in the nation in three point percentage with a surgical 39.2% from distance. However, UMass brings one of the nation's statistically worst defenses, ranking 333rd - conceding 77.7 points a game.
• Noah Fernandes paces the Minutemen offense, averaging 14.8 points per game while dropping nearly six dimes per contest, averaging nearly 40 percent from deep.
• Rich Kelly is one of the most elite deep shooters in the conference and nation, hitting 49.1% of his attempts while averaging 12.8 points per game. Trent Buttrick (11.6), C.J. Kelly (10.7) and T.J. Weeks (10.0) complete a group of five Minutemen that average double figures.

 
BLOCK PARTY

• Clifton Moore has had an exceptional 2021-22, by far proving to be the best campaign of his career. The redshirt-senior leads the team with 61 blocks, no one else tallying in double-digits.
• Moore's 61 blocks is just seven off of what opponents have recorded against the Explorers, only blocking 68 shots on the season.
• Moore moved into a tie for fifth place in La Salle single-season history, joining elite company. His four blocks against Saint Louis joined Lionel Simmons at 61. If he continues his pace of 2.7 blocks per game, Moore will finish the season near the top of the leaderboard, projected to finish with 71 blocks by the end of the regular season. The 71 blocks would be six shy of the all-time record set by Lionel Simmons in 1987-88.
• Clifton has also entered into the top 10 in career blocks, recording 94 blocks over his two years as an Explorer.

 
BLOCKED SHOTS - SEASON
No.             Name                     YEARS
77                Lionel Simmons  1987-88
73                Aaric Murray       2010-11
70                Aaric Murray       2009-10
65                Lionel Simmons  1989-90
61                Lionel Simmons  1988-89
61                Clifton Moore     2021-22
 
Shy AT THE CHARITY STRIPE

• The Explorers have often been on the wrong side of the free throw attempt margins, opponents shooting 89 more attempts over the season than La Salle.
• La Salle ranks towards the bottom in the country in free throw rate (free throws per 100 field goals), 311th in the country with just 25.3 attempts for every 100 field goal attempts taken.

 
NIGHT AND DAY, HOME AND AWAY

• A tale of two teams, the Explorers have seen different results in both day and night games, and home and away games.
• At home, the Explorers are 6-8, shooting the ball at a 42.9% clip, 34.3% from deep while holding opponents to 42.4% from the field and 35.7% from three.
• Conversely, on the road La Salle sees its average dip to 39.0% and 29.6%, opponents hitting at a rate of 47.8% and 40.9%.
• The Explorers are 6-5 in games played during the day, 1-11 in games played at night.

 
CLOSING IN ON 500

• Clark became the first on the team to eclipse the 500 mark earlier this season in the home contest against UMass. Clifton Moore could also achieve that feat against the Minutemen, just 23 points away from that tally.

 
Jack Clark......... 594
Clifton Moore... 477
Christian Ray.... 419
Jhamir Brickus.. 405
 
STATS OF SIGNIFICANCE

• La Salle is 0-12 when trailing with five minutes left in the game, having been unable to come back from late deficits thus far.
• Over the last six games, the Explorers have allowed their opponent to shoot over 45% in each matchup, 1-5 over that span.
• Entering the game against George Mason as one of the best rebounding teams in the conference, La Salle has now been held well under its season average in each of the last four games, averaging 28.0 rebounds compared to their season average of 36.7. The Explorers' offensive boards were halved through the span as well, averaging just over seven per game the last four games.

 
MORE OF MOORE

• Clifton Moore has been a wrecking ball on the defensive side of the ball, ranking 19th in the nation in blocks with 2.65 blocks per game.
• Moore has scored in double-figures in his last 13 games, 14 times in his last 15. He's also recorded a block in each of his last 25 games, having recorded a block in each game this season and finishing last season with two-straight games.

 
JACK OF ALL TRADES

• Jack Clark led the team in assists against the Minutemen last time out, tallying five dimes to tie his career-high. The fourth year Explorer also added 16 points and five rebounds.
• Clark is one of three Explorers to score in double digits against conference foes, averaging 13.2 points per game in A-10 play, adding 5.5 rebounds.
• Tallying just four double-figure games in the non-conference, Clark has tallied nine games with 10 points or more in the 13 conference games.

 
NICKEL AND DIMING 'EM

• In the first matchup between these two, Nickelberry led the Explorers with 18 points on 7-12 shooting, adding four rebounds and a career-high four rebounds in the defeat.
• Nickelberry is one of three Explorers averaging double figures (11.5) in conference play.

 
DEFENSE IS KEY

• In their 2021-22 campaign, the Explorers are 5-3 when allowing less than 70 points and 2-13 when allowing 70+ points.
• In wins, the Explorers concede just 65.6 points, giving up 77.3 points in losses.

 
SERIES HISTORY

• The Minutemen and Explorers meet for the 46th time in program history, UMass holding a 60% win rate with a 27-18 advantage over La Salle.
• After sweeping the Minutemen in Ash Howard's first season under the helm of the Explorers, La Salle has dropped its last five against UMass.
• The Explorers held as much as a 16 point advantage in the second half but were unable to capitalize as UMass shocked the home crowd at Gola for a 77-71 win earlier this season.
• La Salle is 2-5 against the Minutemen under Coach Howard.