Rice (10-15, 5-7) vs. Florida International (14-11, 5-7)
Ocean Bank Convocation Center, Miami; Thursday, 7 p.m. EST
BOTTOM LINE: CUSA foes meet as Rice matches up against FIU. Rice took care of Marshall by five at home in its last outing. Florida International lost 85-75 on the road to UTEP in its most recent game.
TEAM LEADERS: The play-making Brian Beard Jr. is averaging 17.3 points, 6.3 assists and 3.0 steals to lead the way for the Panthers. Complementing Beard is Devon Andrews, who is producing 14.9 points and 5.3 rebounds per game. The Owls have been led by Robert Martin, who is averaging 11.8 points and 6.3 rebounds.
DEFENSIVE IMPROVEMENTS: The Panthers have given up only 82.3 points per game to Conference USA opponents so far. That's an improvement from the 87.3 per game they allowed to non-conference competition.
MIGHTY MARTIN: Martin has connected on 42.4 percent of the 92 3-pointers he's attempted and has made 10 of 23 over the last five games. He's also converted 74.8 percent of his free throws this season.
DEFENSIVE DISRUPTION: Florida International is 5-0 when holding opponents to 40 percent or worse from the field, and 9-11 when opponents shoot better than that. Rice is 6-0 when allowing 41.1 percent or less and 4-15 whenever opponents exceed that mark.
PERFECT WHEN: The Panthers are 5-0 when holding opponents to 40 percent or worse from the field, and 9-11 when opponents shoot better than that. The Owls are 6-0 when they hold opponents to a field goal percentage of 41.1 percent or worse, and 4-15 when opponents exceed that percentage.
DID YOU KNOW: The Florida International offense has scored 84.7 points per game this season, ranking the Panthers 10th among Division 1 teams. The Rice defense has allowed 78.5 points per game to opponents (ranked 293rd).
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This was generated by Automated Insights, http://www.automatedinsights.com/ap, using data from STATS LLC, https://www.stats.com
