Temple Owls (14-8, 6-3 AAC) at East Carolina Pirates (7-15, 2-7 AAC)
Greenville, North Carolina; Saturday, 12 p.m. EST
BOTTOM LINE: East Carolina hosts Temple after Jordan Riley scored 35 points in East Carolina’s 76-75 victory over the Florida Atlantic Owls.
The Pirates are 5-7 on their home court. East Carolina has a 4-2 record in games decided by less than 4 points.
The Owls are 6-3 against AAC opponents. Temple has a 2-2 record in one-possession games.
East Carolina is shooting 40.5% from the field this season, 3.3 percentage points lower than the 43.8% Temple allows to opponents. Temple averages 7.1 made 3-pointers per game this season, 1.4 fewer made shots on average than the 8.5 per game East Carolina allows.
The Pirates and Owls square off Saturday for the first time in AAC play this season.
TOP PERFORMERS: Giovanni Emejuru is averaging 13.5 points, 9.4 rebounds and 1.9 blocks for the Pirates. Demitri Gardner is averaging 1.2 made 3-pointers over the last 10 games.
Gavin Griffiths is shooting 36.2% from beyond the arc with 2.5 made 3-pointers per game for the Owls, while averaging 11.7 points and 2.3 blocks. Derrian Ford is averaging 15.5 points over the last 10 games.
LAST 10 GAMES: Pirates: 2-8, averaging 69.0 points, 30.5 rebounds, 11.8 assists, 6.0 steals and 4.5 blocks per game while shooting 40.3% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 78.9 points per game.
Owls: 7-3, averaging 71.2 points, 30.0 rebounds, 12.4 assists, 6.4 steals and 4.8 blocks per game while shooting 42.4% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 67.9 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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