Prairie View (12-12, 10-1) vs. Grambling State (13-12, 7-5)
Assembly Center, Grambling, Louisiana; Monday, 7:30 p.m. EST
BOTTOM LINE: Grambling State looks for its fourth straight win over Prairie View at Assembly Center. The last victory for the Panthers at Grambling State was a 95-44 win on Feb. 16, 2015.
TEAM LEADERS: Grambling State's Ivy Smith Jr. has averaged 12.6 points, 4.7 assists and 2.0 steals while Dallas Polk-Hilliard has put up 12.7 points and 5.8 rebounds. For the Panthers, Gary Blackston has averaged 15.3 points and 7.8 rebounds while Devonte Patterson has put up 11.5 points and 4.1 rebounds.
RAMP IT UP A NOTCH: The Tigers have scored 70.3 points per game and allowed 64.2 points per game in conference play so far. Those are both solid improvements over the 68.3 points scored and 74.4 points given up per game to non-conference foes.
GIFTED GARY: Blackston has connected on 34.4 percent of the 90 3-pointers he's attempted and has gone 4 for 11 over the last three games. He's also converted 65.6 percent of his free throws this season.
WINNING WHEN: Grambling State is a perfect 5-0 when the team makes at least 77.3 percent of its free throws. The Tigers are 8-12 when they shoot below 77.3 percent from the line.
ASSIST DISTRIBUTION: The Panthers have recently gotten buckets via assists more often than the Tigers. Grambling State has 32 assists on 70 field goals (45.7 percent) over its past three games while Prairie View has assists on 46 of 85 field goals (54.1 percent) during its past three games.
DID YOU KNOW: The Prairie View defense has forced opponents into turnovers on an impressive 24.5 percent of all possessions, which ranks the Panthers seventh among Division I teams. Grambling State has turned the ball over on 22.4 percent of its possessions (ranking the Tigers 326th, nationally).
———
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
