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SIU-Edwardsville Cougars (16-12, 9-6 OVC) at Tennessee State Tigers (16-12, 9-6 OVC)
Nashville, Tennessee; Saturday, 4:30 p.m. EST
BOTTOM LINE: SIU-Edwardsville faces the Tennessee State Tigers after Ray’Sean Taylor scored 21 points in SIU-Edwardsville’s 78-77 win against the Tennessee Tech Golden Eagles.
The Tigers are 10-3 on their home court. Tennessee State is eighth in the OVC with 12.3 assists per game led by Jaylen Jones averaging 2.8.
The Cougars have gone 9-6 against OVC opponents. SIU-Edwardsville ranks third in the OVC shooting 34.5% from 3-point range.
Tennessee State is shooting 44.5% from the field this season, 1.1 percentage points higher than the 43.4% SIU-Edwardsville allows to opponents. SIU-Edwardsville averages 7.5 made 3-pointers per game this season, 1.3 more made shots on average than the 6.2 per game Tennessee State allows.
The matchup Saturday is the first meeting of the season for the two teams in conference play.
TOP PERFORMERS: Jones is averaging 9.5 points for the Tigers. Christian Brown is averaging 13.4 points over the last 10 games for Tennessee State.
Damarco Minor is scoring 14.7 points per game and averaging 8.0 rebounds for the Cougars. Taylor is averaging 13.2 points and 3.8 rebounds over the last 10 games for SIU-Edwardsville.
LAST 10 GAMES: Tigers: 7-3, averaging 66.6 points, 32.4 rebounds, 11.8 assists, 5.4 steals and 3.6 blocks per game while shooting 44.9% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 65.2 points per game.
Cougars: 6-4, averaging 73.0 points, 35.0 rebounds, 11.9 assists, 6.7 steals and 4.1 blocks per game while shooting 42.5% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 70.3 points.
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The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar.