THE BASICS
Rhode Island (5-9, 1-1 A-10) at La Salle (6-8, 0-1 A-10)
Tip-Off: Saturday, Jan. 7, 2:00 p.m. EST
Coverage: ESPN+ | Listen | Live Stats | Game Notes

RHODE ISLAND VS. LA SALLE - SERIES NOTES

• Rhode Island and La Salle are facing each other for the 43rd time Saturday.
• URI holds a 33-9 edge all-time, including eight straight victories and 12 wins in the last 13 meetings.
• Last season, Rhody won 56-54 in the Ryan Center. Ishmael Leggett scored the winning points on a drive to the basket with 23 seconds to go, and La Salle missed three shots in the final 11 seconds as URI held on.
• URI is 16-5 on the road against La Salle.
• Rhode Island has won six straight games at Gola Arena. The last time the Rams lost at La Salle was a 72-62 defeat on Jan. 15, 2014.
• La Salle ranks second in the Atlantic 10 with 7.6 steals per game.
• The Explorers' bench averages 24.7 points per game, the second-highest average in the conference.
• Rhode Island's Archie Miller and La Salle's Fran Dunphy are both in their first season with their respective schools. Both men also are in their second stints in the Atlantic 10.
• Miller coached at Dayton from 2011-17, while Dunphy was with Temple from 2006-19. The Owls left the A-10 for the Big East following the 2011-12 season.
• Miller is 5-3 all-time against La Salle, with all eight games coming while he was at Dayton.

MARTIN HAS CAREER NIGHT AGAINST FORDHAM

• Redshirt senior Malik Martin scored a career-high 23 points during Wednesday's win over Fordham.
• Along the way, he also set a career high with five 3-point baskets.
• Martin now has 988 career points, leaving him just 12 shy of the 1,000-point milestone.
• Over his last six games, Martin is averaging 12.0 points and 8.0 rebounds.
• He is shooting .482 from the field (26-for-54) during the stretch.
• He averaged 6.4 points and 5.3 rebounds per game over the first eight contests of the season.
• Of his 988 career points, 491 have come with URI.
• Long known for bringing versatility to the court, Martin is URI's active career leader in points (988), rebounds (540), steals (133) and blocked shots (81).

SHARING IS CARING

• Over the last seven games, Rhode Island has had a positive assist-turnover ratio six times, averaging 13.3 assists and 13.1 turnovers per game during the stretch.
• In the first seven games of the season, the Rams had more turnovers than assists six times.
• During that stretch, URI was averaging 11.3 assists and 16.1 turnovers per game.
• Sophomore Brayon Freeman has been one of the key reasons for the improvement.
• He is averaging 3.9 assists over the seven games, raising his season average to 2.7 per game.
• Freeman matched his career best with eight assists in Wednesday's win over Fordham.
• Sophomore Sebastian Thomas leads the team with 3.0 assists per game and is third in the Atlantic 10 with a 2.1 assist-turnover ratio.
• For the season, Thomas has 42 assists and 20 turnovers.