Women's Basketball | February 7, 2023

RICHMOND, Va. – The La Salle women's basketball team will make the trip down to Virginia once again to face the Richmond Spiders this Wednesday, Feb. 8 at 6 p.m. The game will stream live on ESPN+.
 
SCOUTING THE EXPLORERS:

• The Explorers enter the contest at 14-10 on the season and 5-4 in Atlantic 10 play most recently dropping to Massachusetts, 66-42, at home.
• La Salle's defense was strong holding the game scoreless through the first four minutes with the Explorers putting up the first four points in the game. A 7-0 run from the Minutewomen changed the momentum putting La Salle in the chase the rest of the contest.
• Mia Jacobs and Molly Masciantonio led the scoring efforts for the Explorers with nine points apiece marking the first contest this season where no Explorer recorded double-digits in a game. Prior to the losses against VCU and Massachusetts, La Salle had recorded six-straight games with three or more players reaching double digits.
• The contest puts an end to Mia Jacobs' double-digit streak. The freshman had previously recorded seven consecutive games with 10 or more points and was the only Explorer to hit double-digits against the Rams earlier in the week.
• La Salle's 42 points marks just its second game this season under 50 points in the game, previously recording 38 against VCU. The Explorers are 0-2 when scoring under 50 points.
• The Explorers have struggled from the 3-point range recently after recording six games with 10 or more threes including a season-high 13 threes against UMES, just three shy of tying the single-game program record set last season. La Salle shot just 11% from the long range against the Minutewomen, its lowest shooting percentage from beyond the arc all season.
• Kayla Spruill broke her 3-point shooting skid sinking her first bucket from the long range in two games to total 205 career threes made. She is now just three more away from tying La Salle's all-time 3-point buckets made mark of 208 set by Jamie Walsh (2006-2010).
• Masciantonio continues to serve as not only the team's but the nation's leading ball handler ranking first national in assist/turnover ratio with a mark of 4.15. She has recorded 12 total games this season with one or zero turnovers.  

SCOUTING THE SPIDERS:

• Richmond enters the contest at 13-5 on the season and 3-5 in conference play.
• The Spiders are also coming off a difficult loss to Massachusetts on Feb. 1. The contest will mark the Spiders first game in a week as its game slated for Feb. 4 against Dayton was canceled due to health and safety protocols related to Covid-19 within the Dayton program.
• Grace Townsend recorded her third double-double of the season with 11 points and 11 assists. She was just shy of a triple-double pulling down nine boards in the contest.
• Addie Budnik led the overall scoring efforts with 27 points adding a single assist, two rebounds and a block.
• Siobhan Ryan contributed 11 points in the game alongside freshman Maggie Doogan. Ryan ranks third in A-10 three-point percentage (40.7%) and sixth in total threes with 48 averaging 2.29 threes per contest.
• Budnik ranks sixth in the league in field goal percentage (47.1%), third in both blocks (39) and blocks per game (1.86).
• Townsend is fifth in the conference in assists per game (5.5), eighth in total assists (88) and ninth in assist to turnover ratio (1.54).

SERIES HISTORY:

• La Salle trails in the all-time series against the Spiders 8-25. The Explorers faced Richmond twice in the 2021-22 season first hosting the Spiders in Tom Gola Arena at TruMark Financial Center on Jan. 23 where La Salle recorded its largest margin of victory in the series, 20 points.
• The Explorers look for their first victory over Richmond on the road since its 63-28 victory on Jan. 18, 2017. A win for La Salle will mark the first road victory for the Explorers against the Spiders in head coach Mountain MacGillivray's tenure.