The La Salle Explorers snapped a three-game losing streak on Saturday with a narrow victory over the UMass Minutemen. The win improves La Salle's record to 18-9 overall and 7-5 in conference play. The loss drops the Minutemen to 18-8 overall and an identical 7-5 conference record. Like UMass, the Explorers trail the Temple Owls by three games in the standings so it's unlikely they will catch them with only four games remaining in the regular season.
La Salle enjoyed an incredibly balanced scoring attack en route to the win. Four of their five starters scored at least 15 points – Earl Pettis had the most at 18 – and all five starters took at least 10 shots a piece, but no more than 13. La Salle's bench was a different story, scoring only two points on six shots the entire game. UMass's bench scored 26 total.
La Salle's next game is scheduled for February 22 when they host the Atlantic 10-leading Temple Owls. They played the Owls tough the last time the two teams met, losing by only six in Temple's building on January 18. Temple's only lost two conference games all season.
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