No. 8 seed Southern Illinois-Edwardsville (9-16, 7-12) vs. No. 1 seed Belmont (24-3, 18-2)
Ohio Valley Conference Tourney First Round, Ford Center, Evansville, Indiana; Wednesday, 8 p.m. EST
BOTTOM LINE: Southern Illinois-Edwardsville is set to match up against Belmont in the first round of the OVC tourney. Belmont won both of the regular season matchups earlier this season. The teams last faced each other on Feb. 6, when the Bruins outshot Southern Illinois-Edwardsville 65.5 percent to 50 percent and hit six more 3-pointers on the way to the 32-point victory.
TEAM LEADERS: Belmont’s Grayson Murphy has averaged 10.7 points, 8.1 rebounds and 5.3 assists while Luke Smith has put up 12.1 points and 2.1 steals. For the Cougars, Mike Adewunmi has averaged 12.9 points and 6.1 rebounds while Shamar Wright has put up nine points and 4.6 rebounds.ACCURATE ADEWUNMI: Adewunmi has connected on 35.1 percent of the 94 3-pointers he’s attempted and has made 3 of 18 over his last five games. He’s also converted 73.3 percent of his free throws this season.
WINLESS WHEN: Southern Illinois-Edwardsville is 0-14 when scoring fewer than 63 points and 9-2 when scoring at least 63.
PERFECT WHEN: Belmont is a perfect 23-0 when it holds an opponent to 78 points or fewer. The Bruins are 1-3 when opponents score more than 78 points.
DID YOU KNOW: The Belmont offense has scored 82.1 points per game this season, ranking the Bruins 14th nationally. The Southern Illinois-Edwardsville defense has allowed 72.8 points per game to opponents (ranked 223rd).
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