James Madison Dukes (25-8, 16-4 Sun Belt) vs. Troy Trojans (25-6, 16-3 Sun Belt)
Pensacola, Florida; Monday, 2 p.m. EDT
BOTTOM LINE: Troy and JMU meet in the Sun Belt Championship.
The Trojans have gone 16-3 against Sun Belt opponents, with a 9-3 record in non-conference play. Troy leads college basketball with 29.7 defensive rebounds per game led by Zay Dyer averaging 8.1.
The Dukes are 16-4 in Sun Belt play. JMU is second in the Sun Belt with 15.3 assists per game led by Zakiya Stephenson averaging 4.4.
Troy averages 7.6 made 3-pointers per game, 1.6 more made shots than the 6.0 per game JMU gives up. JMU has shot at a 45.2% clip from the field this season, 7.5 percentage points above the 37.7% shooting opponents of Troy have averaged.
The teams did not meet in the regular season.
TOP PERFORMERS: Fortuna Ngnawo is scoring 15.2 points per game and averaging 10.7 rebounds for the Trojans. Dyer is averaging 16.7 points and 14.8 rebounds over the last 10 games.
Peyton McDaniel is shooting 44.7% and averaging 18.6 points for the Dukes. Stephenson is averaging 1.3 made 3-pointers over the last 10 games.
LAST 10 GAMES: Trojans: 8-2, averaging 79.0 points, 45.9 rebounds, 16.8 assists, 8.1 steals and 4.3 blocks per game while shooting 40.6% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 71.4 points per game.
Dukes: 10-0, averaging 77.2 points, 37.1 rebounds, 17.3 assists, 9.1 steals and 3.7 blocks per game while shooting 48.2% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 55.3 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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