No. 5 seed Murray State (13-12, 10-10) vs. No. 4 seed Jacksonville State (17-8, 13-6)
Ohio Valley Conference Tourney First Round, Ford Center, Evansville, Indiana; Thursday, 8 p.m. EST
BOTTOM LINE: Murray State is set to match up against Jacksonville State in the opening round of the OVC tournament. In the regular season, Jacksonville State won both of the head-to-head matchups. The teams last played on Feb. 25, when the Gamecocks shot 56.1 percent from the field while holding Murray State to just 40 percent on the way to a 13-point victory.
SAVVY SENIORS: Jacksonville State’s Darian Adams, Brandon Huffman and Kayne Henry have collectively scored 44 percent of the team’s points this season, including 55 percent of all Gamecocks scoring over the last five games.WONDERFUL WILLIAMS: KJ Williams has connected on 42.4 percent of the 59 3-pointers he’s attempted and has made 7 of 16 over his last five games. He’s also converted 65.8 percent of his foul shots this season.
WINLESS WHEN: Murray State is 0-10 when scoring fewer than 71 points and 13-2 when scoring at least 71.
UNBEATEN WHEN: Murray State is a perfect 11-0 when its defense holds opponents to a field goal percentage of 40.3 percent or less. The Racers are 2-12 when allowing the opposition to shoot any better than that.
DID YOU KNOW: Jacksonville State is ranked second among OVC teams with an offensive rebound percentage of 32.6 percent. The Gamecocks have averaged 11.1 offensive boards per game.
___
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 This material may not be published, broadcast, written or redistributed.
