Evansville Purple Aces (7-24, 3-17 MVC) vs. Northern Iowa Panthers (19-12, 11-9 MVC)

St. Louis; Thursday, 9:30 p.m. EST

BOTTOM LINE: Northern Iowa and Evansville meet in the MVC Tournament.

The Panthers have gone 11-9 against MVC opponents, with an 8-3 record in non-conference play. Northern Iowa leads college basketball in team defense, allowing 61.1 points while holding opponents to 40.8% shooting.

The Purple Aces’ record in MVC play is 3-17. Evansville has a 6-19 record against opponents above .500.

Northern Iowa is shooting 46.9% from the field this season, 0.8 percentage points higher than the 46.1% Evansville allows to opponents. Evansville averages 7.8 made 3-pointers per game this season, 1.4 more made shots on average than the 6.4 per game Northern Iowa gives up.

The teams meet for the third time this season. The Panthers won 71-55 in the last matchup on Jan. 31. Will Hornseth led the Panthers with 21 points, and AJ Casey led the Purple Aces with 17 points.

TOP PERFORMERS: Trey Campbell is averaging 13.2 points, 3.9 assists and 1.6 steals for the Panthers. Hornseth is averaging 15.5 points over the last 10 games.

Casey is averaging 13.2 points and 5.8 rebounds for the Purple Aces. Leif Moeller is averaging 13.9 points over the last 10 games.

LAST 10 GAMES: Panthers: 6-4, averaging 72.5 points, 26.5 rebounds, 14.4 assists, 6.1 steals and 2.5 blocks per game while shooting 50.6% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 62.5 points per game.

Purple Aces: 2-8, averaging 66.1 points, 23.6 rebounds, 12.4 assists, 4.6 steals and 2.9 blocks per game while shooting 43.5% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 82.1 points.

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