Tennessee State Tigers (10-5, 4-1 OVC) at Eastern Illinois Panthers (5-10, 2-3 OVC)

Charleston, Illinois; Saturday, 4:30 p.m. EST

BOTTOM LINE: Eastern Illinois hosts Tennessee State after Andre Washington scored 20 points in Eastern Illinois’ 71-61 win over the Tennessee Tech Golden Eagles.

The Panthers are 5-2 on their home court. Eastern Illinois has a 0-1 record in games decided by 3 points or fewer.

The Tigers have gone 4-1 against OVC opponents. Tennessee State scores 81.1 points while outscoring opponents by 5.4 points per game.

Eastern Illinois averages 65.7 points per game, 10.0 fewer points than the 75.7 Tennessee State allows. Tennessee State has shot at a 45.3% rate from the field this season, 1.2 percentage points above the 44.1% shooting opponents of Eastern Illinois have averaged.

The matchup Saturday is the first meeting this season between the two teams in conference play.

TOP PERFORMERS: Zion Fruster is scoring 15.4 points per game with 3.4 rebounds and 2.3 assists for the Panthers. Meechie White is averaging 12.5 points and 4.5 rebounds while shooting 52.6% over the past 10 games.

Travis Harper II is shooting 41.4% from beyond the arc with 2.7 made 3-pointers per game for the Tigers, while averaging 17.5 points. Aaron Nkrumah is averaging 14.7 points and 3.7 steals over the past 10 games.

LAST 10 GAMES: Panthers: 3-7, averaging 68.5 points, 29.5 rebounds, 13.3 assists, 8.3 steals and 2.9 blocks per game while shooting 43.3% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 74.0 points per game.

Tigers: 8-2, averaging 78.1 points, 33.8 rebounds, 12.2 assists, 10.7 steals and 2.3 blocks per game while shooting 46.0% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 73.9 points.

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The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar.