Men's Basketball | November 23, 2023

PHILADELPHIA - The La Salle men's basketball team returns home for a non-conference matchup with Coppin State on Sunday afternoon inside Tom Gola Arena. Tipoff is set for 1:00 p.m. All first responders attending the game will receive a free ticket, courtesy of La Salle Athletics.

The game will be broadcast live on ESPN+, with Kale Beers and Rich Tarr delivering the play-by-play and color commentary. In addition, Explorers fans can follow the team on X @LaSalle_MBB and Instagram @lasallembb.

There will also be a pre-game reception at the Hideaway at Blue and Gold Commons. The Hideaway will open 90 minutes prior to tip-off to all fans.

NEWS & NOTES

• The Explorers are looking to bounce back from their first loss of the season on Tuesday night, which came at the hands of No. 9 Duke.
• Senior Anwar Gill registered a season-best 17 points in the loss, while Jhamir Brickus added 13 points and four assists.
• The loss snapped a four-game winning streak to start the season for La Salle, its longest since the 2014-15 season.
• Head coach Fran Dunphy is on the verge of a career milestone, as he enters Sunday's game with 599 career wins in his 32nd season as a head coach.
• Dunphy amassed 310 victories as head coach at Penn from 1989-2006, and 270 more while at the helm of Temple from 2006-19.
• Now in his second season as head coach at his alma mater La Salle (1970 graduate), Dunphy earned Philadelphia Big 5 Coach of the Year accolades after leading the Explorers to 15 wins last season.
• The contest is the first of four straight games in the city of Philadelphia for La Salle, though two of those contests will come away from Gola Arena.
• Following the game on Sunday, the Explorers will take on Temple (November 29) in its final Big 5 pod game before the first Big 5 Classic at Wells Fargo Center on Dec. 2.
• La Salle and Temple are currently 1-0 in Pod 1, and the winner of the game on Wednesday will advance to the title game of the Big 5 Classic, scheduled for 7:30 p.m.

SCOUTING COPPIN STATE

• The Eagles are winless on the season, having played six times over a 13-day stretch to start the season.
• Most recently, Coppin State dropped a low-scoring battle to Eastern Illinois, 48-46.
• Camaren Sparrow tied the contest up on a jumper with 22 seconds left, only to have EIU's Corey Sawyer Jr. connect on the game winner with five seconds remaining.
• Justin Winston is averaging a team-high 10.3 points per game.
• CSU is averaging 9.3 steals per game but is connecting on just 20.7 percent of its three-point attempts.

SERIES HISTORY

• This game marks the first time since the 2006-07 season that these two schools have squared off against one another.
• The last and only game in the series took place at the Hawkeye Challenge in Iowa on Dec. 1, 2006.
• Darnell Harris had a team-high 19 points for the Explorers, but Tywain McKee had 31 for the Eagles.