South Carolina State Bulldogs (8-21, 6-7 MEAC) at North Carolina Central Eagles (12-16, 8-5 MEAC)
Durham, North Carolina; Thursday, 5 p.m. EST
BOTTOM LINE: North Carolina Central hosts South Carolina State after Gage Lattimore scored 23 points in North Carolina Central’s 77-73 victory over the Maryland-Eastern Shore Hawks.
The Eagles are 8-4 on their home court. North Carolina Central has a 7-12 record in games decided by at least 10 points.
The Bulldogs have gone 6-7 against MEAC opponents. South Carolina State is fifth in the MEAC scoring 66.1 points per game and is shooting 40.9%.
North Carolina Central is shooting 44.3% from the field this season, 3.1 percentage points lower than the 47.4% South Carolina State allows to opponents. South Carolina State’s 40.9% shooting percentage from the field this season is 5.5 percentage points lower than North Carolina Central has allowed to its opponents (46.4%).
The teams play for the second time in conference play this season. South Carolina State won the last meeting 85-72 on Feb. 19. Jayden Johnson scored 20 points to help lead the Bulldogs to the win.
TOP PERFORMERS: Lattimore is shooting 38.7% from beyond the arc with 2.7 made 3-pointers per game for the Eagles, while averaging 17.3 points. Dionte Johnson is shooting 46.0% and averaging 11.9 points over the last 10 games.
Jayden Johnson is scoring 13.1 points per game and averaging 2.7 rebounds for the Bulldogs. Noah Treadwell is averaging 8.7 points and 0.9 rebounds over the last 10 games.
LAST 10 GAMES: Eagles: 5-5, averaging 70.0 points, 25.9 rebounds, 12.2 assists, 8.4 steals and 4.0 blocks per game while shooting 45.8% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 73.6 points per game.
Bulldogs: 5-5, averaging 66.0 points, 27.8 rebounds, 12.3 assists, 7.9 steals and 4.5 blocks per game while shooting 41.3% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 69.2 points.
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The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar.
