Bradley meets S. Illinois in MVC tourney

No. 9 seed Southern Illinois (11-13, 5-13) vs. No. 8 seed Bradley (12-15, 6-12)

Missouri Valley Conference Tourney First Round, Enterprise Center, St. Louis; Thursday, 6:08 p.m. EST

BOTTOM LINE: Southern Illinois and Bradley are set to do battle in the opening round of the MVC tournament. The teams split the regular season series at one win apiece. The teams last met on Feb. 7, when the Salukis shot 47.4 percent from the field en route to a one-point victory.

FAB FRESHMEN: Bradley's Ja'Shon Henry, Darius Hannah and Jayson Kent have collectively accounted for 21 percent of the team's scoring this season, including 22 percent of all Braves points over the last five games.LEAPING FOR LANCE: Lance Jones has connected on 42 percent of the 119 3-pointers he's attempted and has made 10 of 18 over his last three games. He's also converted 70.8 percent of his free throws this season.

ACCOUNTING FOR ASSISTS: The Salukis have recently used assists to create buckets more often than the Braves. Bradley has an assist on 41 of 78 field goals (52.6 percent) over its previous three contests while Southern Illinois has assists on 36 of 68 field goals (52.9 percent) during its past three games.

DID YOU KNOW: Bradley managed to score exactly 200 points across three matchups against Southern Illinois last season.

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This was generated by Automated Insights,