Tennessee State hosts Maletic and Western Illinois

Western Illinois Leathernecks (8-15, 2-10 OVC) at Tennessee State Tigers (10-13, 6-6 OVC)

Nashville, Tennessee; Thursday, 8 p.m. EST

BETMGM SPORTSBOOK LINE: Tigers -8.5; over/under is 140.5

BOTTOM LINE: Western Illinois visits Tennessee State after Marko Maletic scored 24 points in Western Illinois’ 69-65 loss to the SIU-Edwardsville Cougars.

The Tigers are 8-3 on their home court. Tennessee State has a 2-3 record in games decided by less than 4 points.

The Leathernecks have gone 2-10 against OVC opponents. Western Illinois allows 69.7 points to opponents and has been outscored by 2.9 points per game.

Tennessee State scores 79.7 points, 10.0 more per game than the 69.7 Western Illinois allows. Western Illinois has shot at a 42.9% rate from the field this season, 0.8 percentage points greater than the 42.1% shooting opponents of Tennessee State have averaged.

TOP PERFORMERS: Brandon Weston is scoring 16.3 points per game and averaging 4.9 rebounds for the Tigers. Aaron Nkrumah is averaging 10.5 points and 4.8 rebounds over the last 10 games.

Maletic is scoring 16.2 points per game and averaging 3.1 rebounds for the Leathernecks. Ryan Myers is averaging 1.8 made 3-pointers over the last 10 games.

LAST 10 GAMES: Tigers: 6-4, averaging 78.7 points, 35.8 rebounds, 15.2 assists, 7.6 steals and 3.6 blocks per game while shooting 47.2% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 74.5 points per game.

Leathernecks: 1-9, averaging 61.5 points, 29.7 rebounds, 8.4 assists, 6.1 steals and 3.1 blocks per game while shooting 40.9% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 70.4 points.

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