Women's Basketball | February 24, 2023

PHILADELPHIA, Pa. – The La Salle women's basketball team will host VCU in a rematch to end the regular season on Saturday, Feb. 25 at 2 p.m. in Tom Gola Arena at TruMark Financial Center.
 
The Explorers will honor seniors Amy Jacobs, Claire Jacobs, Gabby Crawford, Charity Shears, Jordon Lewis and team manager Temeiah Peete in a ceremony before tipoff.
 
SCOUTING THE EXPLORERS:

• La Salle enters the final game of the regular season at 7-7 in Atlantic 10 play needing a victory against VCU to put the Explorers back in the win column. The Explorers are currently in a tie for ninth place in the conference standings with George Mason who holds an 8-8 record in league play.
• The Explorers enter the contest following a heartbreaking loss to Dayton on Wednesday night which came after an equally devastating loss to Saint Louis earlier in the week.
• La Salle allowed a huge 20-point frame from the Flyers to start the game giving Dayton the advantage it needed to hold the edge over the Explorers never allowing them to get closer than six points the remainder of the game.
• Claire Jacobs led the scoring for La Salle in the contest with 18 points. The contest marked her 18^th in double-digits this season and first with 10-plus points since recording 18 points against Richmond on Feb. 8. The senior leads the Explorers' offensive efforts this season averaging a team-high 12.4 points per game, which ranks 16^th in the conference. Her 1,467 career points ranks ninth on the program's all-time scorers list.
• Kayla Spruill ended the game against the Flyers also in double figures with 13 points. The double-digit performance marks her fourth consecutive and 17^th overall this season. She ranks second on the team in scoring averaging 12.3 points per game, which is good with 17^th in the conference. Spruill's four threes in the contest against Duquesne broke the program's all-time three-point record, previously set at 208. She has since extended the mark to 218.
• Molly Masciantonio set a new season-high in assists against Dayton with nine, just one shy of her career-high mark. The point guard continues to rank first in the nation in assist to turnover ratio with a mark of 4.54. She has now recorded 17 games this season with one or zero turnovers.
• The Explorers' strong three-point shooting continues ranking 50^th nationally and fifth in the conference in three-pointers per game averaging 7.8 per game. La Salle is 11^th in the nation and first in the A-10 in three-pointers attempted per game averaging 26.9 per game. La Salle attempted a season-high 38 threes against the Flyers.

SCOUTING THE RAMS:

• VCU enters the contest with a 4-11 mark in A-10 play having dropped its last six games. The Rams most recently fell to Richmond, 53-37, on Wednesday night.
• The Rams have gone without leading scorer Sarah Te-Biasu for the last eight games. Prior to her absence due to injury, Te-Biasu was averaging 16.1 points per game and ranked 104^th nationally in steals at 2.05 per game.
• Janika Griffith-Wallace has stepped up in the point guard position averaging 14.0 points per game across the last seven games.
• Freshman duo Mary-Anna Asare and Timaya Lewis -Eutsey have become key players for the Rams in the past month. Asare has appeared in 25 games with 15 starts while Lewis-Eutsey has started in 17 of the last 18 games. The pair is tied for third on the team in scoring averaging 7.0 points per game.

SERIES HISTORY:

• VCU holds the all-time advantage against the Explorers 8-3. La Salle trails 2-3 in the series when hosting the Rams.
• The Explorers are on a five-game skid in the all-time series with the Rams dating back to 2018. A victory would mark the first for La Salle since achieving its largest margin of victory in the series, nine, on Jan. 25, 2018.
• La Salle faced VCU earlier this season with the Rams putting an end to the Explorers then five-game win streak. The contest against the Rams marked the lowest scoring for La Salle this season.