Evansville Purple Aces (4-10, 0-3 MVC) at Illinois State Redbirds (11-3, 3-0 MVC)
Normal, Illinois; Thursday, 3 p.m. EST
BETMGM SPORTSBOOK LINE: Redbirds -15.5; over/under is 145.5
BOTTOM LINE: Evansville faces Illinois State after AJ Casey scored 21 points in Evansville’s 76-68 loss to the Bradley Braves.
The Redbirds have gone 6-0 at home. Illinois State scores 80.4 points and has outscored opponents by 13.9 points per game.
The Purple Aces are 0-3 against MVC opponents. Evansville has a 3-4 record in games decided by 10 or more points.
Illinois State makes 49.9% of its shots from the field this season, which is 6.2 percentage points higher than Evansville has allowed to its opponents (43.7%). Evansville has shot at a 41.8% clip from the field this season, 0.5 percentage points greater than the 41.3% shooting opponents of Illinois State have averaged.
The Redbirds and Purple Aces square off Thursday for the first time in conference play this season.
TOP PERFORMERS: Boden Skunberg is shooting 44.8% from beyond the arc with 1.9 made 3-pointers per game for the Redbirds, while averaging 10.8 points. Ty Pence is averaging 13.1 points over the past 10 games.
Connor Turnbull is scoring 13.4 points per game with 6.5 rebounds and 1.3 assists for the Purple Aces. Casey is averaging 9.3 points and 5.1 rebounds over the last 10 games.
LAST 10 GAMES: Redbirds: 9-1, averaging 83.3 points, 35.1 rebounds, 16.0 assists, 6.9 steals and 2.3 blocks per game while shooting 52.9% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 62.7 points per game.
Purple Aces: 2-8, averaging 67.9 points, 28.0 rebounds, 12.1 assists, 5.4 steals and 4.4 blocks per game while shooting 41.1% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 76.7 points.
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The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar.
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