Western Illinois Leathernecks (5-24, 1-17 OVC) at SIU-Edwardsville Cougars (17-12, 10-8 OVC)

Edwardsville, Illinois; Thursday, 8:30 p.m. EST

BOTTOM LINE: SIU-Edwardsville enters the matchup with Western Illinois after losing three straight games.

The Cougars are 8-5 on their home court. SIU-Edwardsville has a 1-3 record in games decided by less than 4 points.

The Leathernecks are 1-17 against OVC opponents. Western Illinois averages 10.7 turnovers per game and is 5-5 when winning the turnover battle.

SIU-Edwardsville scores 70.9 points per game, 5.8 fewer points than the 76.7 Western Illinois gives up. Western Illinois has shot at a 40.7% rate from the field this season, 1.2 percentage points above the 39.5% shooting opponents of SIU-Edwardsville have averaged.

The teams square off for the second time this season in OVC play. SIU-Edwardsville won the last matchup 66-61 on Dec. 22. Ring Malith scored 24 points points to help lead the Cougars to the win.

TOP PERFORMERS: Tyler King is averaging 9.1 points for the Cougars. Darrion Baker is averaging 1.3 made 3-pointers over the last 10 games.

Lucas Lorenzen is scoring 15.3 points per game with 4.2 rebounds and 0.9 assists for the Leathernecks. Francis Okwuosah is averaging 9.3 points and 4.1 rebounds while shooting 51.5% over the last 10 games.

LAST 10 GAMES: Cougars: 6-4, averaging 66.3 points, 31.4 rebounds, 12.1 assists, 6.3 steals and 4.0 blocks per game while shooting 44.1% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 64.9 points per game.

Leathernecks: 1-9, averaging 64.2 points, 25.0 rebounds, 8.9 assists, 4.5 steals and 1.8 blocks per game while shooting 40.4% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 81.4 points.

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