La Salle at St. Joseph's preview

La Salle at St. Joseph's

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Saturday, 8 p.m., Hagan Arena.

TV/Radio: Comcast SportsNet/560 AM WFIL.

Records: La Salle, 5-17 overall, 1-10 Atlantic 10; St. Joseph's, 20-4, 9-2.

On La Salle: Explorers 6-foot-7 sophomore Yevgen Sakhniuk scored a career-high 20 points in Wednesday's 79-66 loss at Davidson. It was his first action since Dec. 22 due to illness.

On St. Joseph's: The Hawks have won nine of their last 10 games. Seven of the wins, including Wednesday's 84-66 win at George Washington, have been by 10 or more points.

Insights

The Hawks know not to take La Salle lightly, especially after the Explorers held an 11-point lead in their earlier meeting, which St. Joseph's won, 69-48. . . . St. Joseph's will look to shoot better from three-point range after shooting just 3 for 19 in that win over La Salle. . . . Sakhniuk's return greatly helps La Salle, which had three players each log 39 minutes against the Hawks. . . . Somehow La Salle will have to contain the multi-dimensional skills of junior forward DeAndre Bembry. In the Hawks' earlier win, Bembry had 16 points, six assists, four steals and four rebounds. . . . St. Joseph's leads the A-10 in three-point field goal percentage defense (.295) and, in the first win over La Salle, the Hawks held the Explorers to 7-for-26 shooting from beyond the arc. . . . La Salle has to get leading scorer Jordan Price (19.5 ppg.) more shots. He was 5 for 12 in the previous St. Joseph's game.

- Marc Narducci
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