The Charlotte 49ers (13-5; 3-1) travel to La Salle (10-8; 2-2) Saturday afternoon looking for their second A-10 road win in a row after not winning a single conference road game in 2008-09. Charlotte hosted La Salle in their A-10 home opener last season, falling 68-61 after being outrebounded 50-25. In that game, the Explorers had nearly as many offensive rebounds (20) as Charlotte had total rebounds. Charlotte owns a 4-1 series lead and last beat the Explorers two years ago at Tom Gola Arena.
The Explorers, winners of two straight have been led by freshman standout and reigning conference Rookie of the Week Aaric Murray. Over the last four games, Murray has averaged 19.8 points per game, 8.5 rebounds and 3.3 blocks while shooting 56.9 percent from the field.
An impeccable rebounding team, the Explorers lead the A-10 in rebounding margin at +6.4 but may be missing two key players for Saturday’s matchup. Senior guard Kimmani Barrett was averaging 13.3 points per game before missing the last three games with a sprained right foot and Ruben Guillandeaux, who led La Salle with 14 points in the last matchup with Charlotte, is out indefinitely with a stress fracture in his right foot.
Charlotte will face a tough task Saturday in containing La Salle’s Rodney Green. The senior guard ranks third in the A-10 and second in the Big 5 in scoring with 17.9 points per game and has eight 20-point games to lead the A-10. Green also ranks second in conference assists (4.2 ), third in minutes (37.1) and is also the active conference scoring leader. Bigger than most point guards, Green’s six-foot-five-inch, 210 pound frame allows him to make strong drives to the cup and still get his shot up and in.
Also winners of two straight, the 49ers come into this one on a bit of a high. Charlotte defeated St. Louis on a Dijuan Harris jumper in overtime on Sunday and is coming off their first conference road-win in nearly two years against Richmond on Wednesday.
Charlotte’s talented frontcourt tandem of Shamari Spears and Chris Braswell has had a stellar season thus far and had another standout game against Richmond. Spears scored 20 points for his sixth 20-plus point game this season and has scored in double-figures in all but two games. Braswell, an A-10 Rookie of the Year candidate, turned in a solid effort of his own. The Hargrave Military Academy product scored nine second-half points to lead the Charlotte charge and pulled down 10 rebounds in the winning effort.
The Niners’ frontcourt will have their hands full with Murray and La Salle though. The Explorers have the third tallest team in the country with an average height of 6-7, trailing only Florida State (6-7.2) and North Carolina (6-7.1) and is fourth in the A-10 in blocks per game (5.1).
If the 49ers can get another crucial road win Saturday, it will make the Wednesday night showdown at Halton Arena with #19 Temple even bigger.
I read you watched the Richmond game online. Is there a way to watch the Temple game online?
ReplyDeletechannelsurfing.net generally has most of the games. If not there, just try listening to either 1660 or 610 am. Thanks for reading The Sports Fix
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