Getty The La Salle Explorers will visit the VCU Rams on Wednesday.
The La Salle Explorers will find their way to the VCU Rams’ Stuart C. Siegel Center on Wednesday for an Atlantic 10 clash.
The game is scheduled to start at 7 p.m. ET. While it won’t be broadcast nationally on television anywhere in the US, you can still watch a live stream of the game on your computer, phone or streaming device via ESPN+, the new digital streaming service from ESPN that has exclusive coverage to dozens of college basketball games — and several other sports–every week.
You can sign up for a free seven-day trial of ESPN+ right here, and you can then watch a live stream of the game on your computer via ESPN.com, or on your phone (Android and iPhone compatible), tablet, Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV, Chromecast, PlayStation 4, Xbox One or other compatible streaming device via the ESPN app.
If you can’t watch live, all games — including VCU vs La Salle — that are streamed on ESPN+ are also available to be watched afterwards on-demand via ESPN.com or the ESPN app.
VCU vs La Salle Preview
The Rams began the season with a four-game winning streak, followed by a 3-4 stretch. They’ve since won three straight, pounding Fordham 76-51 in their Atlantic 10 opener.
“To get a road win to start conference play is important, and I was really proud of our guys,” VCU head coach Mike Rhoades said, according to the Richmond Times-Dispatch. “Great focus.”
VCU holds opponents to 37.6 percent shooting from the field, the ninth-best mark in the nation. Their 62.7 points allowed per game is good for 22nd in the country.
Fordham shot just 32.7 percent on Saturday, turning the ball over 18 times. Rhoades’ squad shot 66.7 percent from the field.
“That’s how we want to set the tone for every game,” VCU junior guard Marcus Evans said of the team’s defense, per the Times-Dispatch. “And then we know, especially, a lot of times our offense comes from our defense. So I think we did a good job the first few possessions letting Fordham know we were here to play and picking the ball up, and we got some turnovers. And that got us going.”
Evans hit all six of his field goal attempts and all four of his free throws to lead the way with 17 points, adding three assists and three steals. Sophomore forward Marcus Santos-Silva shot 6-of-7 for 13 points in just 16 minutes.
“Our emphasis was just moving the ball a lot,” Santos-Silva said, per the Times-Dispatch. “Because anyone on our team can score, but when we move that ball, it works out.”
Rhoades told the paper: “I thought, [Saturday], the way we played was contagious. Sharing the basketball, really helping each other on defense and sticking to the scouting report.”
The Explorers fell in the first 10 games of their season. Then junior guard Saul Phiri returned from injury, prompting a three-game winning streak. They bested UMass 69-60 on the road in their first A-10 test.
Phiri dropped a game-high 20 points on the Minutemen and had four steals.
La Salle held UMass leading scorer Luwane Pipkins, a junior guard, to 15 points on 3-of-16 shooting. UMass senior center Rashaan Holloway, who leads all A-10 players with a 74.7 field goal percentage and averages 9.4 points in 17.3 minutes per game, scored four points on just two attempts.
“The offensive end of the floor is a major issue for us. We need to look at why the most dominant player in the Atlantic 10 only takes two shots; he’s unguardable,” Minutemen head coach Matt McCall said, according to MassLive.com. “For him to take two shots in a game where were struggling to score is a major problem.”