The AP Top 25 men’s college basketball poll is back every week throughout the season!
Get the poll delivered straight to your inbox with AP Top 25 Poll Alerts. Sign up here.
Houston Christian Huskies (5-14, 3-5 Southland) at Nicholls State Colonels (10-10, 5-2 Southland)
Thibodaux, Louisiana; Saturday, 4 p.m. EST
BOTTOM LINE: Nicholls State faces the Houston Christian Huskies after Diante Smith scored 29 points in Nicholls State’s 87-84 overtime win against the Texas A&M-Commerce Lions.
The Colonels have gone 5-1 in home games. Nicholls State is 3-1 in games decided by less than 4 points.
The Huskies are 3-5 against Southland opponents. Houston Christian is 1-1 in games decided by 3 points or fewer.
Nicholls State’s average of 8.1 made 3-pointers per game this season is only 0.6 more made shots on average than the 7.5 per game Houston Christian gives up. Houston Christian averages 71.1 points per game, 4.9 fewer than the 76.0 Nicholls State allows to opponents.
TOP PERFORMERS: Smith is shooting 40.4% from beyond the arc with 2.5 made 3-pointers per game for the Colonels, while averaging 15.1 points, 6.6 rebounds, 3.2 assists and 2.5 steals. Jamal West is averaging 15.5 points, eight rebounds and 1.7 blocks over the last 10 games for Nicholls State.
Dominic Capriotti averages 1.8 made 3-pointers per game for the Huskies, scoring 6.4 points while shooting 43.9% from beyond the arc. Jay Alvarez is averaging 14.1 points over the last 10 games for Houston Christian.
LAST 10 GAMES: Colonels: 6-4, averaging 73.8 points, 36.5 rebounds, 10.6 assists, 6.4 steals and 4.5 blocks per game while shooting 44.7% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 73.8 points per game.
Huskies: 3-7, averaging 69.0 points, 37.1 rebounds, 11.0 assists, 6.1 steals and 3.2 blocks per game while shooting 44.2% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 79.7 points.
___
The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar.