PHILADELPHIA La Salle just had too many shooters for Charlotte.

The Explorers' four-guard attack combined for 56 points and La Salle shot 10-for-21 from 3-point range in an 85-72 win over the 49ers at Gola Arena Wednesday night in a game between two teams headed in the opposite direction.

It was the fourth straight loss and ninth in 12 games for Charlotte (10-11, 2-6 Atlantic 10), which fell into a three-way tie for last place in the A-10.

La Salle (17-6, 6-2), meantime, stayed atop the league standings with its 10th win in 12 contests while improving to 12-0 at home this season.

"They shot the ball great from 3," Charlotte coach Alan Major said of the Explorers, who entered ninth nationally in 3-point shooting (40.5 percent). We let them have too much confidence from that part of the floor. They made some big ones."

Especially during a 4 minute 26 second game-changing stretch midway through the second half when the hosts scored on seven straight possessions, turning a 51-50 advantage into a 66-57 lead with 6 minutes 31 seconds remaining that was too much for Charlotte to overcome.

La Salle was 6-for-6 from the field, including one from the arc, and 2-for-3 from the line during the spurt.

"I think it was just a couple of timely shots," Major said. "When the game got tough, they were able to find a couple of easy ones. To their credit they made some buckets when they needed it."

Chris Braswell led four 49ers in double-figures with 19 points.

Pierra Henry, in his first game back after missing the last two with a sprained MCL in his left knee, had six points and two steals in 33 minutes.

The 49ers, who have lost six straight A-10 games after a 2-0 start, will look to stay out of the league basement when they face Fordham on Saturday in a match between two of the three teams tied at the bottom of the standings.

"You can't let them lose belief and we're going to continue to drive ourselves to get better," Major said. "You can wake up and worry about getting better tomorrow. That's where we are and that's what we're going to do. I love this team. We're going to have total belief. We have to get our edge back.

"There's a lot of basketball left and we're going to write our own story."