 Game Preview: La Salle Explorers vs. St. Bonaventure Bonnies
Feb. 19, 2010 La Salle Explorers vs. St. Bonaventure Bonnies Listen Live! La Salle Explorers (11-14, 3-8) / Conference: Atlantic 10 For the first time in over two weeks, the La Salle Explorers will return to Tom Gola Arena for a home meeting versus the St. Bonaventure Bonnies. The Explorers have just five games remaining on their schedule and with how tight the Atlantic 10 Conference standings are at the moment, each game the rest of the way is pivotal.
La Salle will be even more short-handed than it was in its last home game back on Feb. 6, now that it has just seven scholarship players healthy on its roster with senior Yves Mekongo has been added to the team’s list of injured players. Seniors Ruben Guillandeaux, Kimmani Barrett and Mekongo are essential pieces missing from the Explorers’ lineup. These three seniors have combined for 2,839 points while wearing the Blue and Gold. On Thursday evening at Dayton, senior Rodney Green scored 16 points to put himself in the No. 9 spot on La Salle’s all-time scoring list. Now with 1,819 career points, Green trails Kareem Townes by 106 points for eighth all-time. St. Bonaventure Bonnies (10-14, 3-8) / Conference: Atlantic 10 Entering Sunday’s game, the St. Bonaventure Bonnies are in the same boat as the Explorers. The Bonnies have just five games remaining on their schedule and are tied with the Explorers for 12th place in the A-10, which is the final spot that is rewarded with a postseason berth in the conference tournament. So far in A-10 play, the Bonnies have already defeated UMass and Fordham, which are two of the three teams the Explorers also knocked off. Sophomore Andrew Nicholson is St. Bonaventure’s leading scorer with 16.4 ppg. The reigning A-10 Rookie of the Year has been a dual-threat for opponents this season, since he is also the team’s leader in rebounding with 7.4 boards a game. The Series We know Sunday’s game should be a battle considering these two teams are tied in the conference standings, but it seems that whenever the Explorers and Bonnies get together it’s truly intense. La Salle leads the series, 11-9, and have won the last three at Gola Arena. The Explorers have won six of the last eight games in which they’ve played the Bonnies. Last season at the Reilly Center, St. Bonaventure was led by Chris Matthews’ 15 points en route to its 72-67 win over the Explorers. After being down by 12 points with under two and half minutes remaining, La Salle went on a 10-1 run to cut the Bonnie lead to three, but couldn’t hold off Nicholson, who threw down a dunk with 36 seconds left. Green, Guillandeaux and Barrett all finished in double figures as Mekongo missed his first game after suffering a broken hand in a game against Dayton earlier that week.
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