St. Joseph's at La Salle 1/18/21 - College Basketball Picks & Predictions

The Saint Joseph’s Hawks travel on the road to Tom Gola Arena to take on the La Salle Explorers. Saint Joseph’s is off to a miserable start to the year at 1-9, the only win coming 67-64 over Albany before falling on the road at Davidson to drop to 1-9 (0-4 conference). La Salle has lost three in a row, falling at home to Davidson their last time out, losing 77-53, and dropping to 5-8 on the year.    

Saint Joseph’s is averaging just 70.5 points per game ranking 221st in the country in scoring offense. The Hawks are shooting 40.7% from the field, the 298th field goal percentage, and love to shoot the three averaging 30.6 attempts from beyond the arc per game, the 6th most in the country; although they’ve made just 28.8% of those threes. 

Junior forward Taylor Funk leads the way for Saint Joseph’s he’s averaging 16.1 points and 5.6 rebounds per game, the second most boards per game. Ryan Daly has missed 5 games this season, but when he’s out there he’s averaging 17.2 points, 6.2 rebounds, and a team-high 2.8 assists per game. Sophomore guard Jack Forrest transferred from Columbia and has come off the bench to average 10 points per game. 

La Salle has struggled offensively averaging 64.5 points per game ranking 311th in the country in scoring offense and as a team are shooting 42.5% from the field as a team. The Explorers are a balanced scoring attack and have 7 players averaging 7+ points this season. 

Sophomore guard Jack Clark leads the team in scoring with 9.1 points and standing at 6’8 is the teams leading rebounder with 5.4 per game. Freshman guard Jhamir Brickus has been a nice addition and looks to be apart of the future for La Salle, he’s averaigng 7.4 points and a team-high 3.5 assists per game. 

Saint Joseph’s has been one of the worst defenses in college basketball this season allowing 85.3 points per game ranking 340th in the country in scoring defense. With opponents shooting 47% from the field, the Hawks are 312th in defensive field-goal percentage and are 239th in KenPom adjusted defense. La Salle is allowing 69.2 points per game ranking 147th in scoring defense and is 144th in KenPom adjusted defense.