There are two City 6 games on tap tonight, as Saint Joseph's gets another chance to knock off a ranked team and Penn looks to get back in the win column. Here is a preview of tonight's slate:
Saint Josephs (9-5, 1-1 Atlantic 10) vs. No. 22 Virginia Commonwealth (14-3, 2-0)
9 p.m., Verizon Wireless Arena, CBS Sports Network
Recent games
After dropping a hard-fought home game against now-No. 13 Butler last Wednesday night, St. Joes bounced back with a 74-66 win at Duquesne on Saturday. Langston Galloway led four Hawks in double figures with 16 points and Ronald Roberts scored 13 points and brought down 11 rebounds. C.J. Aiken scored six points and blocked a season-high seven shots.
Meanwhile, the Rams improved to 2-0 in conference play with a 72-65 victory over St. Bonaventure on Saturday. Treveon Graham led VCU with 17 points and nine boards.
Top players
Galloway and Carl Jones each average 14.8 points to lead St. Joes. Roberts accounts for 10.8 points and 8.4 rebounds per game.
Halil Kanacevic, who averages 7.1 points and 7.2 rebounds, will once again be unavailable tonight due to a death in his family.
Grahams 15.5 points per game pace VCU, while Troy Daniels (13.5), Juvonte Reddic (13.3) and Rob Brandenberg (10.5) also average double figures in scoring. Reddic leads VCU in rebounding with 7.4 boards per game.
Long time, no see
Tonight will mark just the third time meeting between these programs, with the last coming on Dec. 4, 1982. Both meetings came in 1982, with the Hawks and Rams each winning once.
Next up
St. Joes plays Penn at 5 p.m. Saturday at the Palestra. The Hawks will be considered the home team.
Penn (2-13) at NJIT (9-8)
7:30 p.m., Fleisher Athletic Center
Recent games
Penn lost its Ivy League opener at rival Princeton, 65-53, on Saturday, the Quakers eighth consecutive loss. Freshman guard Tony Hicks scored 16 points to lead Penn.
The Highlanders are coming off a 66-63 win over Fairleigh Dickson on Monday night. Ryan Woods scored 20 points, while Chris Flores recorded 19 points, six rebounds, four assists and four steals.
Top players
Miles Cartwrights 13.4 points per game pace Penn, which is still without Fran Dougherty (15.7 ppg, 8.8 rpg). Dougherty is expected to miss his sixth consecutive game tonight with mononucleosis.
Flores leads NJIT in scoring with 16.8 points per game, while Woods chips in 14.5 points and five rebounds per contest.
Still searching for No. 1700
Penn remains one victory shy of becoming just the 11th Division-I mens basketball program to win 1,700 games. Kentucky is the all-time leader with 2,101 victories. Temple ranks sixth with 1,801.
Next up
As mentioned above, the Quakers take on St. Joes at the Palestra on Saturday.
E-mail Jake Kaplan at jkaplan@comcastsportsnet.com
