La Salle has clinched a home game in the first round of next week's Atlantic 10 tournament. The Explorers, who won at George Washington on Wednesday, can still finish anywhere from the No. 5 to 8 seed, all of which would make them a host on Tuesday in a 7 p.m. game.

The Explorers host St. Bonaventure at 2 p.m. in its A-10 regular-season finale. The Atlantic 10 regular season concludes for teams on Saturday, after which seedings for the tournament will be determined, which includes La Salle's Tuesday opponent.

La Salle (19-11, 8-7 A-10) has a chance for 20 wins for the first time since 1991-92. It's also senior day, as the school will honor co-captains Earl Pettis and Matt Sheehan in a pregame ceremony.

St. Bonaventure clinched a first-round bye in the A-10 tourney with its overtime win Wednesday against St. Joseph's. The Bonnies (17-10, 10-5) have won four straight and five of their last six.

Temple will be the No. 1 seed. Atlantic City will host the final three rounds of the tournament, beginning next Friday.

-- Gary Potosky

Massachusetts coach Derek Kellogg had a first-hand look at La Salle on Jan. 8 and he didn’t particularly enjoy the view.

La Salle beat the Minutemen, 82-75 at Tom Gola Arena in a game that the Explorers exploded early and held on late.

The Explorers led, 51-26 at halftime.

“In our particular contest, they looked like the Celtics of ’86 or the Lakers, up 26 at the half and they played a great game,” Kellogg said in a conference call. “They are a tough matchup.”

La Salle coach John Giannini says the same thing about UMASS. Actually, Giannini says it about any A-10 team.

“I don’t look at any game differently than the others,” Giannini said. “They are all killers.”

He is right.

Both teams have all week off before squaring off at UMASS on Saturday.

La Salle (17-9, 6-5) will attempt to snap a three-game losing streak following Saturday’s 59-51 loss to visiting St. Louis (one of the more underrated teams around).

UMASS (18-7, 7-4) also lost in Philadelphia, falling to St.Joseph’s 73-62 on Saturday.

Interesting stat – in the loss to the Hawks, UMASS point guard Chaz Williams had 10 assists and no turnovers.  And his team still lost by double figures.

Probably because the Mintuemen only attempted 10 free throws and were just 24 for 71 from the field and were outrebounded 47-37.

As for La Salle, the Explorers committed 20 turnovers against St. Louis.

“When we set screens and nobody is open, we have to keep trying to get open, instead of forcing the issue,” Giannini said. “That is why we had 20 turnovers.”

So La Salle will look to take care of the ball and attempt to resemble the team that played UMASS in the first half, the one the losing coach compared to an NBA champion.

An hour after a convincing 85-72 win over visiting Charlotte, La Salle moved into sole possession of first place in the Atlantic 10 thanks to losses by Massachusetts and St. Bonaventure.

Just don’t expect head coach John Giannini to celebrate yet.

“It’s like being up at halftime against a really good team,” said the head coach. “We had a really good half, but now it’s winning time. Now it really counts. It’s not bad to be up at halftime, but it’s only halftime. Nothing is won at halftime.”

The Explorers (17-6 overall, 6-2 Atlantic 10) have never won a regular season A-10 title and haven’t won a conference regular season title since capturing the MAC in 1989. Both Xavier (6-3) and Temple (5-2) sit a half game behind La Salle and three other teams are a game back. The Explorers have eight games remaining, five of which come away from Tom Gola Arena.

“It means a lot, but the season’s only halfway done,” said sophomore guard Tyreek Duren. “Coach G keeps emphasizing that… He calls it the long stretch. Either you’re going to keep running fast or you’re going to slow up and everybody else is going to pass you.”

Up next. On Saturday at noon, the Explorers will face Big 5 rival St. Joseph’s on a neutral court at the Palestra. The Hawks have dropped four of their last six, but are coming off a nice 70-60 win at Richmond on Wednesday night.

A matchup to watch is La Salle freshman Jerrell Wright against Hawks sophomore C.J. Aiken. Aiken holds an inch advantage and is averaging 11.8 points and three blocks in his last five games. Wright poured in 18 points against Charlotte, his second highest total at La Salle, but grabbed just two boards.

“His defense is getting better and better,” said Duren of Wright. “I knew his offense was going to come, but the only thing I could really emphasize was his defense. Every game it seems like he steps up.”

Parting Shot. When discussing the play of Wright, the head coach had this to offer:

“He’s a big guy who wants to be a big guy,” said Giannini. “Frankly, if a big guy wants to come here and play like he’s 6-foot, instead of 6-8, we’re probably not really interested in that anymore. We want big guys who want to be big guys.”

Ramon Galloway pulled off a player of the week sweep.

The La Salle guard was named the Big Five player of the week on Monday. Several hours earlier, the junior guard and Massachusetts forward Raphiael Putney were named Atlantic Ten Conference co-players of the week.

Galloway averaged 21.5 points, seven assists and 4.5  rebounds in last week's victories over George Washington and Duquesne.

 La Salle’s Tyreek Duren and Dayton’s Matt Kavanaugh were named Atlantic Ten Conference co-players of the week on Monday.

Duren, a sophomore point guard, averaged 19.5 points, 5.5 rebounds and 3.5 assists. He finished with 18 points, six rebounds and two assists during Wednesday’s 76-70 setback to Temple.  The Neumann-Goretti  High graduate followed with 21 points, five rebounds, five assists and two steals in Saturday’s 80-66 victory over Rhode Island.

Kavanaugh, a junior forward, had 20 points and nine rebounds in Dayton’s 87-72 victory over Xavier on Saturday. It was Dayton's only game this past week.

This appeared to be a perfect trap game for La Salle, a non-league game in between Atlantic-10 clashes.

True, it was a Big 5 game, but on the scope of things, the Explorers were coming off two monumental A-10 wins over Xavier and Massachusetts, but they had the same commitment against Penn and it showed.

The most impressive aspect of the Explorers 68-57 win was another strong defensive effort.

La Salle held Penn to 19 for 56 shooting (33.9 percent). Penn guard Zack Rosen entered the game averaging 19.4 points, but scored just eight, none in the second half.

So even with the wins over Xavier and UMASS in review mirror and a killer road schedule the next two games at Dayton and Temple, La Salle had enough focus to defeat a solid Penn team that is 7-9 and has played ambitious schedule in preparing for Ivy League competition.

In fact Rosen and teammate Tyler Bernardini, Penn’s two leading scorers, shot a combined 6 for 23.

“We come in each game trying to hold the top scorers under their average and when we do, we have success,” said La Salle guard Tyreek Duren, who had a game-high 21 points.

After a 15-18 season, La Salle has certainly been a surprise at 13-4 overall and 2-0 in the Atlantic-10.

“What sets us aside is that they really want to win and understand the importance of defense,” La Salle coach John Giannini said. “They are very unselfish with the ball.”

And unselfish team that plays defense will win a lot of games as long as the shots are going in.

“Coach Giannini has done an excellent job getting the guys to play solid basketball,” Penn coach Jerome Allen said.

Most of all, he has them realizing the importance of every game, whether it’s in the Atlantic-10, the Big 5 or any other setting.

La Salle has 14 remaining regular season games, all against Atlantic-10 opponents. The Explorers will take each one just as seriously, clearly intent on continuing what has been one of the more improved teams in all of college basketball.

Charles Torpey, Jenna Darcy, Bob Moore and Karo Isajan will be inducted into the La Salle University Hall of Athletics, the school announced Tuesday in a news release. The induction will take place Feb. 11 in the ballroom of the campus’ Student Union after the Explorers host a men’s basketball game against Saint Louis that afternoon at Gola Arena. The four will be recognized during halftime of that game.
 
Torpey, who died last year, was named coach of the year in the Atlantic 10 16 times, including 13 in cross country, and led his teams to 15 Atlantic 10 Championships over his 17 years at La Salle (1994-2011). In cross country, Torpey's teams captured 13 A-10 Championships.
 
Darcy, of Medford Lakes and Shawnee High,  won 11 Atlantic 10 championships in track and field, including seven individual titles in the indoor mile, indoor 3,000m, indoor 5,000m, outdoor 1500m (twice), and outdoor 5000m (twice). In cross country, Darcy was a three-time all-Atlantic 10 performer and helped the Explorers to four consecutive Atlantic 10 Championships. She won the 2004 ECAC Cross Country Championship and was a three-time all-Mid-Atlantic region selection
 
Moore, of Bishop Neuman, won the 200 butterfly at the 1966 NCAA Championships and also earned All-America honors in the 100 butterfly that season. He was also a Middle Atlantic Conference champion in the 100 butterfly, 200 butterfly, 400 freestyle relay and 400 medley relay, the school said.
 
Isajan was the four-time Atlantic 10 Diver of the Year from 2004-07 and as a senior was the first La Salle diver to qualify for the NCAA Diving Championship in 20 year.