Saturday, March 4, 2023 1:00 p.m.
Tom Gola Arena, Philadelphia, Pa.
Loyola resumes its rivalry with La Salle when the Ramblers travel to Philly for the A-10 season finale on Saturday afternoon. Loyola is 0-5 against La Salle, with all five meetings coming during the three seasons when the Explorers were in the MCC (1992-95). The Ramblers are locked into the 15 seed for the A-10 Tournament, which begins 60-some hours after this game. The Explorers could finish the season 8-10 in league play with a win, which could earn them
a seeding as high as 8 and as low as 12.Legendary Philadelphia area coach Fran Dunphy—a La Salle alum from 1970-- was called in to right the ship for La Salle after they had only one season above .500 and a conference record of 60-99 since their Sweet 16 run in 2011. Dunphy took Penn to the NCAA Tournament nine times in 17 years with the Ivy League school, and after crossing town to Temple he went to the Dance six of his seven years with the team in the A-10, and twice more in the six years with Temple in the AAC.
The Explorers have been streaky this year. La Salle currently has a four-game losing streak, which came after a five-game win streak, which came after a five-game losing streak. Last time out, they lost 77-53 at Dayton on Tuesday. The Explorers do a really good job against the bottom part of the league—they’re 7-3 against teams 170 or below in KenPom, but 0-7 against teams with a KenPom better than 170. But give ‘em some credit—they win almost all the games they’re supposed to, and several home games punching above their weight.
The likely starting lineup for the Explorers is 5’11” junior Jhamir Brickus (8.7 ppg, 39.4% three point shooting), 6’1” sophomore Khalil Brantley (14.1 ppg, 4.1 assists), 6’7” senior Fousseyni Drame (9.0 ppg, team leading 5.8 rebounds per game), 6’7” senior Hassan Drame (6.6 ppg), and 6’9” senior Mamadou Doucoure (3.2 ppg). Doucoure starts at center, but 6’10” freshman Rokas Jocius gets most of the minutes near the rim.
Besides Jocious 6’4” senior Josh Nickelberry, and 6’5” sophomore Daeshon Shepherd (5.7 ppg) are the top guys off the bench. Nickelberry is a great three-point shooter (39.3%), and averages 11.4 points per game; the Louisville transfer has had seven games with 20+ points and four games with five or more threes. Junior guard Anwar Gill is one of their best bench players, but missed the last game against Dayton—he averages 8.0 points per game.
The Ramblers don’t know their opponent on Tuesday in Brooklyn, but St. Joe’s has the inside track on earning the 10 seed. The 10/15 seed game will be playing at 2 p.m. Eastern, 1 p.m. Central.
Loyola game notes: https://loyolaramblers.com/documents/20 ... _Salle.pdfLa Salle game notes: https://goexplorers.com/news/2023/3/3/m ... r-day.aspxTV/Streaming video: ESPN+
https://www.espn.com/watch/player?id=bc ... 54a41e951fRadio/Streaming audio: https://loyolaramblers.com/watch/?Live=148&type=LiveLive stats: https://goexplorers.com/sidearmstats/mbball/summaryVegas odds: Pending