City of Basketball Love

Finn Courtney (@finncourtney_)
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PHILADELPHIA -- The inaugural Autumn Invitational from Xfinity Mobile Arena took place on Saturday, with Penn State (4-0) cruising to a 14-point win over La Salle (2-2) and Syracuse (3-0) riding a second-half wave to knock off Drexel (1-3).

Here’s a notebook of headlines and coverage from the day.

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Ashton Walker progressing well

In what has the chance to be a long season for the Explorers following back-to-back blowout losses, freshman Ashton Walker continues to show star potential for La Salle after a strong 13-point outing.

The freshman hailing from Virginia Beach bounced back Saturday after a dismal two-point game against Temple where he shot just 1-of-4 from the field. Walker finished with 13 points, six assists, three rebounds and despite committing four turnovers in the first half alone, settled down in the second half and didn’t turn the ball over once. 

His assist-to-turnover ratio has been mighty impressive for the 6-5 guard, standing at 22 assists to seven turnovers after the loss to Penn State.

“It’s hard as a freshman, especially as a point guard, you've got so many things being thrown at you,” first-year head coach Darris Nichols said. “[I’m pleased with how] he’s handled the ball in certain situations. Sometimes you’re gonna have a careless turnover here and there, but he’s playing a lot of minutes too. So, just the physicality that a lot of teams are throwing at him, I’m pleased with how he’s handling that.”

A talented high school player who put up 22.5 ppg, 7.4 rpg and 2.8 apg at Catholic High School in Virginia, Walker initially committed in-state to Radford but swapped his commitment to the Explorers when Nichols, then Radford’s head coach, took the open job at La Salle. While he’s unlikely to post numbers that rival his high school stats in his first collegiate season, Nichols knows the importance of Walker, especially on an already short bench. 

On the season, after Saturday's performance, he's now averaging 9.8 points, 3.8 boards, and a team-high 5.5 assists. 

“We’re dependent on him a lot right now,” Nichols said, “especially due to a lot of injuries. But, I try to go back to when I was a freshman point guard and all the stuff I was going through, so I’m just pleased with him.”

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Explorers looking for balance

Outside of Walker, who looks primed for major playing time throughout the 2025-26 campaign, the rotation game-to-game continues to present quite a few question marks.

A team that returned just one player in junior Eric Acker, Nichols’ first year at the helm is an ongoing experiment to find the best mix.

Case in point, the Explorers' leading scorer to date — graduate guard Jaeden Marshall, who averages 15.5 points — came off the bench Saturday against Penn State, the first time all season he didn’t start. Forward Jerome Brewer Jr. has started every game for the Explorers and trails just Marshall and Walker in minutes played.

Ultimately, lineup changes have been the name of the game for the Explorers through four games.

“Just want to keep guys on the edge,” Nichols said, “make sure guys are playing the right way. And we mix up our lineups pretty much every game, so that’s kind of how we’ve been.”

For Marshall, at his fourth school in five seasons, he's so far looked his best as a collegiate player since joining La Salle. After Marshall’s career began at the junior college level, he spent two seasons with Omaha, where he started 21 out of 50 games while scoring in double digits on 20 different occasions. 

His most successful season came last year at Niagara, coming off the bench to average 10.3 ppg and a 44 percent shooting percentage from the field before landing at La Salle for one final ride as a collegiate player. 

Brewer Jr., meanwhile, came from a powerhouse at Camden High School and began his career with two successful seasons at Texas A&M-Commerce, before suffering a season-ending injury in his sophomore season. He then transferred to McNeese, but was not able to find his way back and redshirted the entire 2024-25 season before healing up and transferring to La Salle as a redshirt junior.

With injuries and a lack of depth on the roster, both men have played big minutes early in the season.

“The way we play, like holding guys accountable, you need some depth to hold them accountable,” Nichols said, post-game. “We’re struggling with that kind of right now, getting guys to play the right way and being able to sub. [...] I think just the guys are getting used to playing together, you have about 17 new guys and you try to build it together in game situations.”

La Salle's continued attempts to find the right recipe were a struggle all game against the Nittany Lions, especially in terms of ballhandling. The Explorers came into Saturday averaging 12 turnovers a game, but struggled to stay under that mark. 

By halftime, La Salle had given the ball away nine times and finished with 15, their highest mark all season.

“We had too many turnovers, [so we’ve got to clean it up],” Nichols said. “There are things in our program that we call shooting turnovers, so some are shot selection, like when the other team goes on a run, I feel like our guys were trying to fix it right away.”

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Drexel’s disastrous second half

Postgame, as Drexel head coach Zach Spiker began his press conference’s opening statement, the conference was distracted by a camera falling into a trash bin. Spiker found it an apt comparison to his team's showing — “in the garbage."

“I don't think we had our best effort,” Spiker said. “I don't think we had our best performance for all of you. [...] We’ve had better days than today, so I think that’s the part that I’m trying to process and not overdo it. But I just say very simply, I’m disappointed with our play today. I think we’re better than that.”

The Dragons trailed by just five at the half, but were overpowered in the final 20 minutes by the Orange. Drexel was outscored 43-18 after halftime, including shooting a paltry seven-of-35 from the floor and just two-of-13 from beyond the arc. 

The Dragons were also unable to force mistakes from the opposition, forcing just seven turnovers from Syracuse compared to the 18 they surrendered.

“I think their length, which I thought we did a decent job managing in the first half, and I also thought we managed it by being aggressive,” Spiker said. “We weren’t able to create that same aggressive nature to get some fouls called because some guys had foul trouble and exploit some matchups. So I think that did not help us.”

Coming into the game, Spiker had seen both of Syracuse’s first two games — blowout wins over Binghamton and Delaware State — and hoped to present more of a challenge. After halftime, Drexel couldn't keep pace with the length advantage of the Orange.

“We need to do a better job handling pressure and we have, but credit goes to Syracuse,” Spiker said. “I thought that created a margin and made the game out of reach.”

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Beard successfully jumping into D-I

Senior guard Eli Beard has waited for a shot at the D-I level for years, playing at two different junior colleges before two very successful seasons at D-III Mary Hardin-Baylor and then finally, ending up at Drexel for his final year.

And with every game bringing him closer to the end of his collegiate career, he’s making the most of his time as a Dragon. In his Beard's four D-I games, he’s putting up 12.5 ppg — including 13 against Syracuse — 2.5 apg and 2 rpg. Saturday also marked his first time ever playing in an NBA arena, a moment he made sure to take in.

“I loved it,” Beard said. “I’ve never played in something like this before, so I feel like that was an opportunity for me that I won’t get again and I feel like I had to make the most of this opportunity. So, it was fun, I haven’t had nerves before a game in so long [and] I had a couple nerves get me going.”

Beard, who’s quite used to being underrated in his career standing at just 5-11, came into Saturday's contest confident of both his ability and his teammates to find him.

“I know what I bring to the table,” Beard said. “I came to Drexel to play games like this, I feel like my coach believes in me. My teammates believe in me. So it’s just on me to go out there and show everybody what I can do despite my size.

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Next up

With the Invitational now in the rear-view mirror, both teams switch to Big 5 play this upcoming week. La Salle takes on Villanova (3-1) at home on Tuesday while Drexel takes on Penn (1-2) on Friday.

The Penn game is the second of three next week for the Dragons, who also hope to get senior forward Victor Panov (8.3 ppg on the year) back by next week.

“Vic’s been a big part of what we’re doing, and Vic brings it every day,” Spiker said. “He’s day-to-day and then we hope to get him back soon and I think he brings a presence, a veteran leadership. He’s one tough dude [and] we hope to get him back for our next game. We got a big stretch [next week], we go Tuesday, Friday, Sunday, Tuesday, so we need him.”