Mercer (9-16, 4-9) vs. East Tennessee State (20-7, 10-4)
Freedom Hall Civic Center, Johnson City, Tennessee; Saturday, 4 p.m. EST
BOTTOM LINE: East Tennessee State looks for its 10th straight win in the head-to-head series over Mercer. In its last nine wins against the Bears, East Tennessee State has won by an average of 10 points. Mercer's last win in the series came on Feb. 28, 2015, a 69-64 victory.
STEPPING UP: East Tennessee State's Jeromy Rodriguez has averaged 11.7 points and 11.3 rebounds while Patrick Good has put up 12.2 points. For the Bears, Ross Cummings has averaged 17 points while Ethan Stair has put up 11.3 points and five rebounds.
CLUTCH CUMMINGS: Cummings has connected on 40.1 percent of the 197 3-pointers he's attempted and has gone 5 for 24 over the last three games. He's also converted 83.8 percent of his foul shots this season.
YET TO WIN: The Buccaneers are 0-5 when they score 68 points or fewer and 20-2 when they exceed 68 points. The Bears are 0-12 when they fail to score more than 70 points and 9-4 on the season, otherwise.
WINNING WHEN: The Buccaneers are 16-0 when they hold opposing teams to 72 points or fewer and 4-7 when opponents exceed 72 points. The Bears are 5-0 when the team blocks at least four shots and 4-16 when they fall short of that total.
DID YOU KNOW: East Tennessee State is ranked second among Division I teams with an offensive rebound percentage of 39.3 percent. The Buccaneers have averaged 13.7 offensive boards per game.
———
For more AP college basketball coverage: https://apnews.com/Collegebasketball and http://twitter.com/AP—Top25
———
This was generated by Automated Insights, http://www.automatedinsights.com/ap, using data from STATS LLC, https://www.stats.com
