NW State looks to sweep HBU
Northwestern State (9-12, 6-6) vs. Houston Baptist (3-17, 3-8)
Sharp Gymnasium, Houston; Saturday, 8 p.m. EST
BOTTOM LINE: Northwestern State goes for the season sweep over Houston Baptist after winning the previous matchup in Natchitoches. The teams last met on Jan. 5, when the Demons shot 60.3 percent from the field while limiting Houston Baptist's shooters to just 43.8 percent en route to the 106-79 victory.
TEAM LEADERSHIP: Houston Baptist's Ian DuBose has averaged 19.4 points and 7.9 rebounds while Jalon Gates has put up 16.3 points. For the Demons, Chudier Bile has averaged 13.9 points and 7.4 rebounds while Nikos Chougkaz has put up 9.2 points and 7.3 rebounds.
SOUTHLAND IMPROVEMENT: The Huskies have scored 85.3 points per game and allowed 94.7 points per game across 11 conference games. Those are both moves in the right direction from the 61.3 points scored and 101.8 points allowed per game to non-conference foes.CLUTCH CHUDIER: Bile has connected on 37.5 percent of the 64 3-pointers he's attempted and has gone 7 for 10 over the last three games. He's also made 74 percent of his foul shots this season.
WINLESS WHEN: Northwestern State is 0-6 when scoring fewer than 63 points and 9-6 when scoring at least 63.
ASSIST RATIOS: The Huskies have recently gotten buckets via assists more often than the Demons. Houston Baptist has an assist on 42 of 79 field goals (53.2 percent) across its past three matchups while Northwestern State has assists on 38 of 84 field goals (45.2 percent) during its past three games.
DID YOU KNOW: The Houston Baptist offense has scored 81.8 points per game this season, ranking the Huskies seventh among Division 1 teams. The Northwestern State defense has allowed 75 points per game to opponents (ranked 274th).
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This was generated by Automated Insights, http://www.automatedinsights.com/ap, using data from STATS LLC, https://www.stats.com