Evansville Purple Aces (6-19, 2-12 MVC) at Southern Illinois Salukis (11-14, 5-9 MVC)

Carbondale, Illinois; Thursday, 8 p.m. EST

BOTTOM LINE: Evansville faces Southern Illinois after AJ Casey scored 28 points in Evansville’s 88-80 win over the Illinois State Redbirds.

The Salukis are 6-5 in home games. Southern Illinois ranks fifth in the MVC in team defense, allowing 71.6 points while holding opponents to 42.5% shooting.

The Purple Aces have gone 2-12 against MVC opponents. Evansville is 3-10 in games decided by 10 points or more.

Southern Illinois is shooting 46.0% from the field this season, 0.7 percentage points higher than the 45.3% Evansville allows to opponents. Evansville averages 67.7 points per game, 3.9 fewer than the 71.6 Southern Illinois gives up.

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

TOP PERFORMERS: Quel’Ron House is shooting 47.2% and averaging 14.4 points for the Salukis. Rolyns Aligbe is averaging 1.3 made 3-pointers over the last 10 games.

Alex Hemenway averages 1.6 made 3-pointers per game for the Purple Aces, scoring 6.8 points while shooting 33.3% from beyond the arc. Casey is averaging 16.3 points and 5.4 rebounds over the last 10 games.

LAST 10 GAMES: Salukis: 4-6, averaging 67.5 points, 32.2 rebounds, 13.5 assists, 8.0 steals and 4.3 blocks per game while shooting 42.5% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 67.9 points per game.

Purple Aces: 2-8, averaging 67.5 points, 26.2 rebounds, 13.6 assists, 5.5 steals and 3.2 blocks per game while shooting 45.7% 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.