Southern Illinois visits Belmont after Lundblade’s 25-point showing

Southern Illinois Salukis (7-8, 1-3 MVC) at Belmont Bruins (13-2, 3-1 MVC)

Nashville, Tennessee; Sunday, 5 p.m. EST

BOTTOM LINE: Belmont faces Southern Illinois after Tyler Lundblade scored 25 points in Belmont’s 88-78 victory over the Bradley Braves.

The Bruins are 6-1 on their home court. Belmont averages 18.8 assists per game to lead the MVC, paced by Nic McClain with 6.3.

The Salukis have gone 1-3 against MVC opponents. Southern Illinois is 1-1 in games decided by 3 points or fewer.

Belmont averages 10.8 made 3-pointers per game, 2.7 more made shots than the 8.1 per game Southern Illinois gives up. Southern Illinois averages 4.6 made 3-pointers per game this season, 5.1 fewer made shots on average than the 9.7 per game Belmont allows.

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

TOP PERFORMERS: Lundblade is scoring 17.2 points per game with 2.2 rebounds and 1.7 assists for the Bruins. McClain is averaging 10.6 points and 4.2 rebounds while shooting 46.3% over the last 10 games.

Rolyns Aligbe is averaging 9.5 points and 6.8 rebounds for the Salukis. Quel’Ron House is averaging 12.7 points over the last 10 games.

LAST 10 GAMES: Bruins: 8-2, averaging 85.8 points, 33.8 rebounds, 19.6 assists, 6.1 steals and 3.8 blocks per game while shooting 52.8% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 72.7 points per game.

Salukis: 4-6, averaging 75.1 points, 34.7 rebounds, 12.5 assists, 8.5 steals and 3.0 blocks per game while shooting 46.3% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 75.3 points.

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