GAME NOTES: The second round of the Atlantic 10 Tournament will begin on Thursday with a matchup between the eighth-seeded Massachusetts Minutemen and ninth-seeded La Salle Explorers at the Barclays Center.

The winner of this contest will battle the top-seeded Davidson Wildcats on Friday.

UMass has not played well leading up to this game, losing five of its last six contests, including an 87-65 blowout loss at George Washington on Saturday. The Minutemen's league mark was 10-8 and overall record at 17-14.

La Salle had dropped four straight games before narrowly defeating Dayton 55-53 on Saturday. The Explorers finished their regular season with an A-10 record of 8-10 and overall mark of 16-15.

This marks the 33rd all-time meeting between these programs with UMass leading the series 18-14. The teams last met on Feb. 8 this season with the Minutemen tallying a 66-59 victory over the Explorers.

Jordan Price scored 21 points and pulled down eight rebounds for La Salle in the Explorers regular-season finale against Dayton. La Salle converted only 38.5 percent of its tries from the field against Dayton, but the Explorers limited the Flyers to a 39.5 shooting percentage. La Salle also outscored Dayton on points in the paint (24-16) and out-rebounded the Flyers 40-27.

Jordan Price finished the regular season as La Salle's top scorer with 17.3 ppg, which made him the second best scorer in the A-10. The Explorers top rebounder is Steve Zack who averages 8.9 rpg. La Salle ranks near the bottom of the A-10 in scoring (62.7 ppg) and field-goal percentage (.418). On the defensive side of the ball, the Explorers rank near the top of the A-10 for scoring defense (61.9 ppg) and field-goal percentage defense (.413). La Salle is in the black for turnover margin (+0.23) and in the red for rebounding margin (-0.8).

The Minutemen converted only 39.3 percent of their field-goal attempts against George Washington, including just 26.3 percent from 3-point distance. Defensively, UMass allowed the Colonials to connect on 60 percent of their tries from the field, including 14-of-18 from 3-point range. George Washington outscored UMass 42-15 on 3-point field goals. Donte Clark was the Minutemen's top scorer in the loss with 12 points.

UMass' top scorer is Maxie Esho (11.5 ppg), while the team's top rebounder is Cady Lalanne with 9.3 rpg (third in the A-10). UMass ranks near the top in the A-10 for scoring offense with 69.4 ppg and converts 43.4 percent of its field goal tries but that includes the A-10's second lowest 3-point field-goal percentage (.298). Defensively, the Minutemen rank second to last in their league for scoring defense (70.3 ppg) and allow teams to convert 43.6 percent of their field-goal tries. UMass is in the black for rebounding margin (+2.0) and in the red for turnover margin (-2.0).

This should be a great matchup to kick off the second round of the A-10 tourney as La Salle is one of the better defensive teams in the conference, while UMass is averaging just under 70 ppg. Look for the Explorers to advance as they've held their last three opponents under 60 points.