Rice leads Monmouth against Northern Illinois after 27-point performance

Northern Illinois Huskies (5-3) at Monmouth Hawks (4-4)

West Long Branch, New Jersey; Saturday, 2 p.m. EST

BOTTOM LINE: Monmouth hosts the Northern Illinois Huskies after Xander Rice scored 27 points in Monmouth's 91-87 loss to the Cornell Big Red.

The Hawks have gone 1-1 in home games. Monmouth is ninth in the CAA with 22.4 defensive rebounds per game led by Nikita Konstantynovskyi averaging 5.0.

The Huskies are 2-2 on the road. Northern Illinois is second in the MAC with 25.1 defensive rebounds per game led by Zarigue Nutter averaging 4.4.

Monmouth's average of 7.9 made 3-pointers per game this season is the same per game average that Northern Illinois allows. Northern Illinois averages 7.1 more points per game (82.4) than Monmouth gives up to opponents (75.3).

TOP PERFORMERS: Rice is shooting 32.8% from beyond the arc with 2.4 made 3-pointers per game for the Hawks, while averaging 20.9 points and 4.1 assists. Jack Collins is shooting 44.6% and averaging 11.6 points for Monmouth.

David Coit is scoring 18.8 points per game and averaging 3.9 rebounds for the Huskies. Nutter is averaging 15.3 points for Northern Illinois.

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The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar.