End of the road for Explorers?

Barring some big, big wins for La Salle, the first Philly team is going down in its bid to make the Tournament. And no not even the NCAA Tournament, if the Explorers (10-18, 3-11 A-10) can't beat the top two teams in the Atlantic 10 -- Xavier and Massachusetts -- and get a lot of help from St. Bonaventure (4-10) it won't make the conference tourney.

The Explorer's are all but eliminated from the A-10 tournament in Atlantic City, which takes all but the bottom two teams in the league, and La Salle is tied with Richmond for that dubious spot. The North Philly squad looked like even at 3-10 it had a chance, but it lost to George Washington, while Richmond pulled of an upset over St. Joe's (by shooting 62 percent) to pull even and the Bonnies eked out a win over Duquesne.

Meanwhile, Temple and St. Joe's have already punched their tickets to A-City, and the Hawks have a slim chance of securing one of four 1st round byes, but that loss to the lowly Spiders hurts. The Hawks are tied with GW for the final bye, but they also face the pair of conference leaders to finish the season.

Atlantic 10 Standings (16-game season)

Xavier 11-3
UMass 11-3
Rhode Island 10-5
GW 9-5
St. Joe's 9-5
Fordham 8-6
Saint Louis 7-7
Dayton 6-8
Charlotte 6-8
Temple 6-8
Duquesne 6-9
St. Bonaventure 4-10
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La Salle 3-11
Richmond 3-11