Missouri State Bears (19-11, 11-6 CUSA) at Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders (15-14, 10-7 CUSA)
Murfreesboro, Tennessee; Saturday, 3 p.m. EST
BOTTOM LINE: Middle Tennessee hosts Missouri State after Alayna Contreras scored 22 points in Middle Tennessee’s 80-78 loss to the Florida International Panthers.
The Blue Raiders have gone 8-5 in home games. Middle Tennessee is 8-7 in games decided by 10 or more points.
The Bears are 11-6 in CUSA play. Missouri State ranks eighth in the CUSA shooting 29.5% from 3-point range.
Middle Tennessee is shooting 39.7% from the field this season, 1.8 percentage points higher than the 37.9% Missouri State allows to opponents. Missouri State has shot at a 40.1% clip from the field this season, 0.8 percentage points higher than the 39.3% shooting opponents of Middle Tennessee have averaged.
The teams play for the second time in conference play this season. Missouri State won the last meeting 60-54 on Feb. 6. Kaemyn Bekemeier scored 25 points to help lead the Bears to the win.
TOP PERFORMERS: Contreras is shooting 36.5% from beyond the arc with 1.9 made 3-pointers per game for the Blue Raiders, while averaging 13.7 points. Macie Phifer is averaging 14.8 points, 6.5 rebounds and 1.9 steals over the last 10 games.
Bekemeier is shooting 39.4% and averaging 17.5 points for the Bears. Kendal Brueggen is averaging 1.1 made 3-pointers over the last 10 games.
LAST 10 GAMES: Blue Raiders: 5-5, averaging 63.1 points, 29.5 rebounds, 11.2 assists, 8.0 steals and 2.3 blocks per game while shooting 38.7% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 60.1 points per game.
Bears: 6-4, averaging 64.1 points, 36.5 rebounds, 13.8 assists, 6.2 steals and 2.7 blocks per game while shooting 40.7% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 55.1 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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