East Texas A&M hosts McNeese after Garcia’s 26-point game

McNeese Cowboys (8-5, 2-0 Southland) at East Texas A&M Lions (2-11, 0-2 Southland)

Commerce, Texas; Saturday, 3:15 p.m. EST

BOTTOM LINE: McNeese takes on East Texas A&M after Javohn Garcia scored 26 points in McNeese’s 79-51 win against the SE Louisiana Lions.

The Lions are 2-2 in home games. East Texas A&M is 0-7 in games decided by 10 points or more.

The Cowboys are 2-0 in conference matchups. McNeese ranks seventh in the Southland shooting 31.1% from 3-point range.

East Texas A&M is shooting 42.0% from the field this season, 0.8 percentage points higher than the 41.2% McNeese allows to opponents. McNeese has shot at a 48.2% clip from the field this season, 1.2 percentage points fewer than the 49.4% shooting opponents of East Texas A&M have averaged.

The Lions and Cowboys meet Saturday for the first time in conference play this season.

TOP PERFORMERS: Khaliq Abdul-Mateen is shooting 33.8% from beyond the arc with 2.0 made 3-pointers per game for the Lions, while averaging 10.8 points and 1.5 steals.

Omar Cooper is averaging 1.9 points and 3.4 assists for the Cowboys.

LAST 10 GAMES: Lions: 2-8, averaging 62.8 points, 26.6 rebounds, 12.2 assists, 8.0 steals and 3.1 blocks per game while shooting 41.3% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 76.1 points per game.

Cowboys: 7-3, averaging 74.8 points, 31.4 rebounds, 12.4 assists, 8.5 steals and 3.4 blocks per game while shooting 48.6% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 63.7 points.

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