NW State, SHSU meet in Southland quarters

No. 5 seed Northwestern State (15-15, 12-9) vs. No. 4 seed Sam Houston State (18-13, 11-9)

Southland Conference Tourney Quarterfinals, Leonard E. Merrell Center, Katy, Texas; Thursday, 5 p.m. EDT

BOTTOM LINE: Northwestern State and Sam Houston State are set to do battle in the quarterfinals of the Southland tournament. The only meeting between the teams this season came on Dec. 18, when the Bearkats forced 19 Northwestern State turnovers and turned the ball over just 12 times on their way to the 13-point victory.

SUPER SENIORS: Sam Houston State has relied heavily on its seniors this year. Kai Mitchell, Chad Bowie, RJ Smith and Dainan Swoope have collectively accounted for 49 percent of the team's scoring this year and 56 percent of all Bearkats points over the last five games.CLUTCH CHUDIER: Chudier Bile has connected on 37.6 percent of the 93 3-pointers he's attempted and has gone 6 for 13 over the last three games. He's also converted 73.8 percent of his free throws this season.

SCORING THRESHOLDS: Sam Houston State is 0-5 when its offense scores 65 points or fewer. Northwestern State is a perfect 7-0 when it holds opponents to 66 or fewer points.

PERFECT WHEN: The Bearkats are 8-0 when they hold opposing teams to 65 points or fewer and 10-13 when opponents exceed 65 points. The Demons are 7-0 when they hold opponents to 66 points or fewer and 8-15 when opponents exceed 66 points.

DID YOU KNOW: The Sam Houston State offense has scored 78 points per game this season, ranking the Bearkats 27th among Division 1 teams. The Northwestern State defense has allowed 75.7 points per game to opponents (ranked 289th).

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This was generated by Automated Insights, http://www.automatedinsights.com/ap, using data from STATS LLC, https://www.stats.com