Men's Basketball Gears Up For La Salle

PHILADELPHIA - The University of Pennsylvania men's basketball team continues to struggle to find wins, but progress has been seen in the last two games (at Wagner and Butler). The Quakers hope that progress continues, and possibly leads to the program's 1,700th win, Saturday afternoon at La Salle in a Big 5 matchup.

GAME 13 - PENN (2-10) at LA SALLE (9-3)
Saturday, Jan. 5, 2013 * 2 p.m.
Tom Gola Arena (Philadelphia)
TV: GoExplorers.com (there is a charge for this service)  
Radio: WFIL 560 AM (Brian Seltzer, Vince Curran)

Click here for Live Stats!

Penn Game Notes (PDF) / La Salle Game Notes (PDF)

The Penn-La Salle Series
*The Quakers and the Explorers have played 65 times, with Penn holding a 38-27 lead.

*That said, La Salle has won five in a row in the series, ending a six-game win streak Penn had from 2002-07. Last year at The Palestra, the Explorers gained a 68-57 win; two years ago, they needed overtime at the Gola but escaped with an 89-83 victory.

*Penn's last win in the series came on Jan. 18, 2007, a 93-92 victory at the Gola. It remains the highest-scoring one-point game in program history.

*For the second straight game, Penn is playing an Atlantic 10 opponent. (In fact, starting with Wednesday night's game at Butler, Penn hit a stretch that features four A-10 opponents among its next seven games.) Penn is 107-138 all-time against programs that currently compete in the Atlantic 10; that includes a 70-68 loss to Fordham earlier this season in the NIT Season Tipoff, and Wednesday's 70-57 loss to the Bulldogs at Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.

Countdown to 1,700
Penn has won 1,699 games as a program; with one more, the Quakers will become the 11th NCAA Division I program to reach 1,700 wins. (Indiana only recently became the 10th, scoring its 1,700th win on December 19 against Mount St. Mary's.)

Quaker Notemeal From Butler
* Penn played for the second straight game without leading scorer Fran Dougherty, who did not make the trip to Indianapolis due to mononucleosis. (Doc is not expected for Saturday's game.)

*This was Penn's first game against a ranked opponent this season.

*Penn shot 53.3 percent from three-point land in the game (8-of-15), a season high.

*Junior guard Miles Cartwright led Penn in scoring with 15 points, his team-leading eighth double-figure scoring game this season and 41st at Penn.

*Cartwright has led Penn in scoring in two straight games, three of the last four contests, four of the last six, and five games this season.

*Freshman guard Tony Hicks scored 10 points against the Bulldogs, his third double-figure scoring game this season.

*Freshman guard Jamal Lewis set a season/career high with six assists; in addition, he has scored a combined 28 points in the previous three games to raise his scoring average from 4.1 points per game to 5.5 ppg.