Neal's hot hand provides key offense for Explorers

When the Penn men's basketball team faces off against the La Salle Explorers in today's matinee game, Gary Neal will have to be the focal point of the Quakers' defense.

So far this season, Neal is leading the Explorers in scoring and is third in the Atlantic-10 Conference, averaging almost 22 points per game -- shooting 45.4 percent from the field and 38.7 percent from three-point range.

Last year, as a freshman, Neal earned A-10 Rookie of the Year honors, and this year the 6-foot-4 guard has not shown any signs of a sophomore slump.

Neal has scored 30 or more points in a game three times this season, including a 32-point effort against Villanova. His 32 points were just five short of his career high set last season against Xavier.

"Gary Neal is just awesome," Penn junior guard Tim Begley said. "He's taking shots that if any of us took them we'd be on the bench. He's taking them and making them."

The only person to effectively shut down the high-scoring Neal so far this year has been himself. Neal was forced to sit out games against Appalachian State and Lafayette at the beginning of the season after suffering a bruised knee in La Salle's second game of the season against Hampton.

In the Hampton game, Neal's worst of the season, he shot just 1-for-9 from the field and played only 19 minutes.

"Neal has seemingly unlimited range, he's a very confident guy, he can really get hot," Penn coach Fran Dunphy said. "We obviously need to pay attention to him."

The Explorers sorely missed Neal's presence in both contests. In the two games he sat out, La Salle could only muster 55.5 points per game and lost the two games by a combined point total of 31.

In the five losses the Explorers have suffered with Neal in the lineup, La Salle was beaten by a combined total of just 33 points.

Since Neal's return to the lineup, the Explorers have gone 7-3 and are averaging just under 70 points per game.

"Gary Neal's just a great scorer," Penn senior swingman Jeff Schiffner said. "We're going to have to try to limit them as much as we can."

Helping Neal in the scoring department will be classmate Steven Smith. The 6-8 forward is the second leading scorer on the team, averaging just over 15 points per game. He also offers the Explorers a solid post presence.

Despite Smith's strong inside presence, the Red and Blue's focus on defense will have to be Neal as most of La Salle's offense runs through him.

Neal leads La Salle with 185 shot attempts -- 18 more than Smith despite playing in two fewer games.

This season, the Quakers have struggled to stop quick-scoring perimeter players such as Wisconsin's Devin Harris and Manhattan's Luis Flores -- who put up 16 and 20 points, respectively, against Penn.

If the Quakers wish to slow down the Explorers and continue their recent winning ways, their top priority will have to be stopping the explosive Neal.

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