Tennessee State (3-10, 2-8) vs. Murray State (6-7, 3-5)
CFSB Center, Murray, Kentucky; Thursday, 8:30 p.m. EST
BOTTOM LINE: Murray State looks for its sixth straight win in the head-to-head series over Tennessee State. In its last five wins against the Tigers, Murray State has won by an average of 17 points. Tennessee State’s last win in the series came on Jan. 16, 2016, a 73-71 victory.
VETERAN LEADERSHIP: Tennessee State’s Marcus Fitzgerald Jr., Ravel Moody and Josh Linder have combined to account for 39 percent of the team’s scoring this season and have scored 48 percent of all Tigers points over the last five games.
STEPPING IT UP: The Racers have scored 71.1 points per game and allowed 67.4 points per game across eight conference games. Those are both improvements over the 64.5 points scored and 71 points given up to non-conference opponents.MIGHTY MARCUS: Fitzgerald has connected on 34.8 percent of the 69 3-pointers he’s attempted and has gone 6 for 14 over the last three games. He’s also made 81.5 percent of his foul shots this season.
WINLESS WHEN: Murray State is 0-6 this year when it scores 70 points or fewer and 6-1 when it scores at least 71.
UNDEFEATED WHEN: Murray State is a sterling 6-0 when its defense holds opponents to a field goal percentage of 40.3 percent or less. The Racers are 0-7 when allowing opponents to shoot any better than that.
DID YOU KNOW: Murray State is ranked second among OVC teams with an offensive rebound percentage of 31.1 percent. The Racers have averaged 9.8 offensive boards per game.
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