Nicholas Signoretta, Editor

Official branding for this week’s upcoming A10 Women’s Championship. (courtesy of atlantic10.com)

La Salle women’s basketball has concluded their regular season with a pristine record of 17-13 overall, featuring a crisp 8-7 mark in conference play.  In the modern economy of the Atlantic 10 Conference, that would be good for the #8 Seed in the league’s upcoming conference tournament in Wilmington, Delaware.  Instead of recapping this past week’s games (nothing like losing on the road to 6-20 Dayton), I will instead solely focus on what the Explorers’ actual chances are at being crowned the A-10 Tournament champions for the first time in program history.

Molly Masciantonio thinking about that automatic bid La Salle will get from winning the A10 tourney. (courtesy of shotbyscornely)

La Salle will open the tournament on Thursday, Mar 2nd, with a matchup against the #9 Seed George Mason Patriots (15-14, 8-8) at Chase Fieldhouse.  The matchup will start at 11AM EST and will be broadcast on ESPN+.  For the Explorers, the matchup is not the best draw.  While La Salle beat George Mason earlier this season by a score of 69-62, that came with the backing of homecourt.  Also, the Patriots have won four of their last five, with their only loss coming against the league’s best team and reigning A-10 Tournament champion, the UMass Minutewomen (24-5, 14-2).  To say La Salle would have wanted to face one of the teams that play in the tournament’s opening games on Mar 1st would be an understatement.  To play a team on short rest would be a great break for the Explorers, but unfortunately, they must play an equally rested Patriots team.

The next big obstacle standing in La Salle’s way is their potential opponent for the Friday, Mar 3rd, quarterfinal matchup.  Due to the A-10 bracket not reseeding teams, a win over the Patriots on Thursday gives La Salle a date with the UMass team that I touched on earlier, the same Minutewomen that trounced the Explorers earlier this year in Tom Gola by a score of 66-42.  UMass is on quite the tear too, with their only loss in their past fourteen games being a two-point loss at the A-10’s #3 Seed, the Saint Louis Billikens (14-17, 10-6).  Not an ideal opponent.  If La Salle does find their way into this matchup, the game would be at 11AM EST and stream on ESPN+.

The bracket for the 2023 A10 Women’s Championship. (courtesy of atlantic10.com)

If the Explorers do somehow make it to the semifinals and the finals, those games would take place on Saturday, Mar 4th, at 11AM EST, and on Sunday, Mar 5th, at 12PM EST, respectively.  The semifinal would stream on CBS Sports Network while the final would be on ESPNU.  I pray that next week I will be writing about the A-10 Champion La Salle Explorers.  Realistically, I will be writing their obituary.