Women's Basketball | November 5, 2023

BALTIMORE, Md. – The La Salle women's basketball team will travel to face the Coppin State Eagles for its first game of the 2023-24 season on Monday, Nov. 6. Tipoff is set for 7:00 p.m. at the Physical Education Complex Arena.
 
SCOUTING THE EXPLORERS:

• La Salle is coming off a 17-14 record in the 2022-23 season. This marks the first back-to-back season with a winning record to end the season under head coach Mountain MacGillivray. In Atlantic 10 Conference play the Explorers finished with an 8-7 record which was good enough to earn the team the 8^th seed in the end-of-season conference tournament.
• La Salle is returning five players from last year's roster including Molly Masciantonio, Emilee Tahata, Julie Jekot, Emma Egan, and Fiona Connolly.
• Ten new members are making their way to 20^th & Olney for the 2023-24 season. Two of those members are graduate transfers, Jolene Armendariz from San Francisco State and Makayla Miller from Ouachita Baptist. Tiara Bolden is a junior transfer from Eastern Arizona and Gabby Turco from Saint Anslem rounds out the transfers. Ashley Hopper is a 5^th year that joins the Explorers for the 23-24 squad.
• Five of the Explorer newcomers are freshman. Hailey Chiles, Aryss Macktoon, Laia Monclova, Nicole Melious, and Amber Bullard are all set to make their collegiate debut this season for the Blue & Gold.
• Melious comes to La Salle after having a prestigious high school career. A graduate of Susan E. Wagner high school, Melious holds the New York City all-time single season scoring record with 1,137 points. In New York City and Staten Island, the freshman is the all-time leading scorer. In her time in high school Melious made 410 three-point shots, the most in New York City history.
• Molly Masciantonio comes into the season after making history in 2022-23. By the end of the season the graduate student was number one in the NCAA in assist/turnover ratio at 4.72. She finished the season with 118 assists throughout, only turning the ball over on 25 occasions. Masciantonio played 26 games in route to accomplish this feat. In a late game against conference member Dayton, she had nine assists during the game, her most in a single game last season. Last season she averaged 4.5 assists per game, her second straight season with that statistic.
• As a team last season, the Explorers relied on the three-point shot. They shot from deep 822 times in 22-23. Per game the team made 7.6 three-point shots.
• In an early conference matchup with cross-town rival Saint Joseph's the team went 17-18 from the free throw line.

 
SCOUTING THE EAGLES:

• Coppin Stats comes off an 8-22 overall record in the 2022-23 season with first-year head coach Jermaine Woods. A MEAC member, the Eagles went 5-9 in conference.
• Sophomore standout Jewel Watkins was the shining light offensively for the Eagles in the 2022-23 season. The Ohio native led Coppin State with 436 points last season. In the 30 games she played in she averaged 14.5 points per game.
• Colleen Bucknor led the way in rebounds for CSU in her redshirt freshman season. She totaled 204 rebounds, 126 of those game on the defensive end of the floor.
• Maryland native Mossi Staples was the Eagles leading assist-getter and is returning for more. Her 79 assists was the most on last year's team and against Winthrop she totaled eight assists in a 78-49 victory.
• As a team the Eagles averaged 11.6 free throws per game last season and had a .658 shooting percentage for those shots.

 
LAST TIME THEY MET:

• This contest will be the 4^th matchup between the two programs with the Explorers currently leading the all-time series 2-1.
• The last meetup resulted in a Coppin State win in Philadelphia 73-70. This game occurred in the 2021 season.
• This will be the second game between the two teams in Baltimore with La Salle winning the first 75-49 back in 2020.