California Baptist (9-5, 4-3) vs. New Mexico State (3-4, 0-3)
Eastwood High School Gym, El Paso, Texas; Saturday, 9 p.m. EST
BOTTOM LINE: New Mexico State seeks revenge on California Baptist after dropping the first matchup in El Paso. The teams last met on Feb. 5, when the Lancers shot 52.4 percent from the field while holding New Mexico State’s shooters to just 48.3 percent on their way to the 10-point victory.
BIG MEN ON CAMPUS: The Lancers are led by Gorjok Gak and Reed Nottage. Gak is averaging 13.1 points and 10.4 rebounds while Nottage is putting up 15.5 points and 5.5 rebounds per contest. The Aggies have been led by seniors Jabari Rice and Donnie Tillman. Rice has averaged 13.8 points and 5.2 rebounds while Tillman has put up 10.8 points and 7.2 rebounds per contest.
CLAMPING DOWN: The Lancers have given up only 75.3 points per game to conference opponents thus far. That’s an improvement from the 79.3 per game they allowed in non-conference play.
CREATING OFFENSE: Ty Rowell has either made or assisted on 44 percent of all California Baptist field goals over the last three games. The senior guard has 16 field goals and 24 assists in those games.
UNDEFEATED WHEN: California Baptist is a perfect 7-0 when its defense holds opponents to a field goal percentage of 44.8 percent or less. The Lancers are 2-5 when allowing opponents to shoot any better than that.
ASSIST DISTRIBUTION: The Lancers have recently used assists to create baskets more often than the Aggies. New Mexico State has 34 assists on 64 field goals (53.1 percent) over its past three outings while California Baptist has assists on 53 of 90 field goals (58.9 percent) during its past three games.
DID YOU KNOW: California Baptist is ranked ninth among Division I teams with an average of 83.6 points per game. The Lancers have averaged 86.8 points per game over their last five games.
___
For more AP college basketball coverage: https://apnews.com/Collegebasketball and http://twitter.com/AP_Top25
___
This was generated by Automated Insights, http://www.automatedinsights.com/ap, using data from STATS LLC, https://www.stats.com
Copyright © 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, written or redistributed.
