Western Illinois Leathernecks (7-6, 1-1 OVC) at SIU-Edwardsville Cougars (7-6, 0-2 OVC)

Edwardsville, Illinois; Thursday, 9 p.m. EST

BOTTOM LINE: Western Illinois faces SIU-Edwardsville in OVC action Thursday.

The Cougars have gone 4-1 at home. SIU-Edwardsville is 3-4 against opponents over .500.

The Leathernecks are 1-1 against OVC opponents. Western Illinois is 3-0 in games decided by less than 4 points.

SIU-Edwardsville is shooting 42.6% from the field this season, 1.3 percentage points lower than the 43.9% Western Illinois allows to opponents. Western Illinois averages 70.9 points per game, 3.8 more than the 67.1 SIU-Edwardsville gives up.

The Cougars and Leathernecks face off Thursday for the first time in conference play this season.

TOP PERFORMERS: Ray’Sean Taylor is scoring 17.0 points per game and averaging 4.8 rebounds for the Cougars.

Marko Maletic is averaging 16.5 points for the Leathernecks.

LAST 10 GAMES: Cougars: 6-4, averaging 74.7 points, 37.4 rebounds, 15.6 assists, 5.9 steals and 4.2 blocks per game while shooting 44.3% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 66.0 points per game.

Leathernecks: 6-4, averaging 72.6 points, 34.2 rebounds, 11.7 assists, 5.3 steals and 4.2 blocks per game while shooting 45.0% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 67.9 points.

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