North Alabama (10-4, 6-2) vs. Florida Gulf Coast (7-6, 2-4)
Alico Arena, Fort Myers, Florida; Friday, 7 p.m. EST
BOTTOM LINE: Atlantic Sun foes meet as North Alabama takes on Florida Gulf Coast. Both teams are coming off of losses this past Saturday. Florida Gulf Coast lost 77-66 at home to Stetson, while North Alabama fell 82-72 at North Florida.
BIG MEN ON CAMPUS: Florida Gulf Coast’s Cyrus Largie has averaged 13.2 points and 6.2 rebounds while Caleb Catto has put up 13.7 points and 4.2 rebounds. For the Lions, Mervin James has averaged 15.4 points and 7.5 rebounds while Emanuel Littles has put up 9.5 points and 10.2 rebounds.
TAKE IT UP A NOTCH: The Lions have scored 74.3 points per game and allowed 69.3 points per game in conference play so far. Those are both significant improvements over the 54.5 points scored and 74.5 points allowed per game to non-conference opponents.MIGHTY MERVIN: James has connected on 32.4 percent of the 37 3-pointers he’s attempted and has made 4 of 11 over his last five games. He’s also made 73.3 percent of his free throws this season.
UNBEATEN WHEN: The Eagles are 5-0 when holding opponents to 42.4 percent or worse from the field, and 2-6 when opponents shoot better than that. The Lions are 6-0 when at least four of their players score in double-figures and 4-4 on the year otherwise.
ASSIST-TO-FG RATIO: The Eagles have recently created buckets via assists more often than the Lions. Florida Gulf Coast has 28 assists on 71 field goals (39.4 percent) over its past three games while North Alabama has assists on 30 of 80 field goals (37.5 percent) during its past three games.
DID YOU KNOW: Florida Gulf Coast is ranked first among Atlantic Sun teams with an offensive rebound percentage of 32.2 percent. The Eagles have averaged 12.2 offensive boards per game and 14 per game over their last three games.
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This was generated by Automated Insights, http://www.automatedinsights.com/ap, using data from STATS LLC, https://www.stats.com
