Texas Southern (12-11, 7-3) vs. Grambling State (13-11, 7-4)
Assembly Center, Grambling, Louisiana; Saturday, 5 p.m. EST
BOTTOM LINE: Texas Southern meets Grambling State as both teams have won its last four conference games. Texas Southern's last SWAC loss came against the Arkansas-Pine Bluff Golden Lions 90-86 on Jan. 26. Grambling State is coming off a 65-53 road win over Alcorn State on Monday.
SUPER SENIORS: Texas Southern has benefited heavily from its seniors. Jeremy Combs, Jalyn Patterson, Eden Ewing and Devocio Butler have combined to account for 50 percent of the team's scoring this year and 66 percent of all Tigers points over the team's last five games.
STEPPING IT UP: Texas Southern has scored 81.2 points per game and allowed 74.4 points per game against SWAC opponents. Those are both significant improvements over the 73.1 points scored and 85 points given up per game to non-conference foes.
CREATING OFFENSE: Ivy Smith Jr. has either made or assisted on 45 percent of all Grambling State field goals over the last three games. The junior guard has 16 field goals and 15 assists in those games.
ASSIST DISTRIBUTION: The Texas Southern offense has recently converted buckets via assists more often than Texas Southern. Grambling State has 29 assists on 69 field goals (42 percent) across its past three outings while Texas Southern has assists on 45 of 90 field goals (50 percent) during its past three games.
DID YOU KNOW: The stout Grambling State defense has held opposing offenses to a field goal percentage of 38.8 percent, the 11th-lowest mark in Division I. Texas Southern has allowed opponents to shoot 45.9 percent through 23 games (ranking the Tigers 289th).
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This was generated by Automated Insights, http://www.automatedinsights.com/ap, using data from STATS LLC, https://www.stats.com
