Mercer (8-16, 3-9) vs. Western Carolina (6-20, 3-10)
Ramsey Center, Cullowhee, North Carolina; Thursday, 7 p.m. EST
BOTTOM LINE: Western Carolina looks to extend Mercer's conference losing streak to five games. Mercer's last SoCon win came against the VMI Keydets 88-68 on Jan. 24. Western Carolina lost 83-56 at Wofford in its most recent game.
LEADING THE CHARGE: Western Carolina's Carlos Dotson has averaged 13.3 points and 9.6 rebounds while Kameron Gibson has put up 13.5 points. For the Bears, Ross Cummings has averaged 16.9 points while Ethan Stair has put up 11.5 points and 5.2 rebounds.
CLUTCH CUMMINGS: Cummings has connected on 41.2 percent of the 187 3-pointers he's attempted and has made 11 of 36 over the last five games. He's also converted 83.2 percent of his free throws this season.
WINLESS WHEN: The Catamounts are 0-14 when they score 69 points or fewer and 6-6 when they exceed 69 points. The Bears are 0-15 when they fail to score more than 74 points and 8-1 on the season, otherwise.
STREAK STATS: Western Carolina has scored 58 points per game and allowed 74.7 over a three-game home losing streak.
DID YOU KNOW: Mercer has attempted more free throws per game than any other SoCon team. The Bears have averaged 21.9 free throws 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
