Women's Basketball | March 5, 2024

HENRICO, Va. – La Salle women's basketball will open up the Atlantic 10 Championships on Wednesday, March 6 at 12:00 p.m. when they take on the Massachusetts Minutewomen. The championships will be held at the Henrico Sport and Event Center, the first year the tournament will be played in this venue.
 
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SCOUTING THE EXPLORERS:

• La Salle enters tomorrow coming off one of the more impressive team performances they've had all year. The Explorers topped Fordham 93-83, on a day where the team shot historically well from three-point range.
• Nicole Melious led the way in the three-point shooting, going 8-10 herself from beyond the arch. The team as a whole went 20-36 from three, breaking a La Salle program record.
• Melious set a career-high in points against the Rams scoring 28. Tiara Bolden also set the same achievement, scoring 25 points in the win.
• Bolden was also extremely efficient from three-point range against Fordham, going 4-8 to help add to the big numbers put up by La Salle.
• The La Salle offense hadn't scored above 73 points this season, prior to Saturday's game with Fordham, scoring 93 points in the win.
• The win over the Rams snapped an eight-game losing streak for La Salle to bring their regular season record to 8-21 overall, and 5-13 in conference play.
• La Salle has beaten UMass twice already this season, although both games were close until the very end.
• The most recent meeting took place in Amherst, Mass. and the Explorers found themselves down by 15 points at one point in the contest, but Melious and Makayla Miller each had their part in eliminating the big UMass lead.
• Melious used her talents from beyond the arch to tie the game with a few minutes remaining in the fourth, also giving La Salle the lead moments later.
• Tied down the stretch, Miller was able to draw a monumental foul to bring her to the free throw line, where she knocked down both shots to give La Salle the comeback win.
• This will be the third time La Salle and Massachusetts play this season and La Salle will have the opportunity to do something that hasn't been done since the 1994-95 season.
• The last time a La Salle women's basketball team defeated a team three times in one season came back in that 94-95 season when they topped Northern Illinois.
• The last time La Salle played the same team three times in one season was in 2015-26 against Massachusetts. The Minutewomen controlled that season series 3-0.

 
SCOUTING THE MINUTEWOMEN:

• UMass has had a difficult season overall since last season's Atlantic 10 Championship game appearance where they fell to the Saint Louis Billikens.
• Massachusetts has gone 4-26 this season, and is 2-16 in conference play with their only two wins coming against Dayton earlier in the season, and most recently against St. Bonaventure.
• Kristen Williams is the leading scorer for the Minutewomen this season, averaging 11.9 points per game. In the two games against La Salle this season she totaled 22 points in those contests, and will need to be kept in check by the Explorers.
• Alexsia Rose hurt La Salle the last time these two teams faced off. Rose totaled 18 points in the loss, but played a difficult game to defend throughout.