East Tennessee State (16-3, 5-1) vs. Western Carolina (12-4, 4-1)
Ramsey Center, Cullowhee, North Carolina; Saturday, 7 p.m. EST
BOTTOM LINE: East Tennessee State looks for its ninth straight win in the head-to-head series over Western Carolina. East Tennessee State has won by an average of 15 points in its last eight wins over the Catamounts. Western Carolina's last win in the series came on March 7, 2015, a 67-61 win.
SENIOR STUDS: Western Carolina's Mason Faulkner, Carlos Dotson and Onno Steger have combined to account for 52 percent of the team's scoring this season, including 51 percent of all Catamounts points over the last five games.
RAMPING IT UP A NOTCH: The Catamounts have scored 85.6 points per game across five conference games, an improvement from the 77.9 per game they recorded against non-conference opponents.BRILLIANT BO: Bo Hodges has connected on 27 percent of the 37 3-pointers he's attempted. He's also made 61.5 percent of his free throws this season.
STREAK STATS: Western Carolina has won its last seven home games, scoring an average of 84.4 points while giving up 64.1.
ASSIST DISTRIBUTION: The Catamounts have recently used assists to create buckets more often than the Buccaneers. Western Carolina has an assist on 50 of 84 field goals (59.5 percent) across its previous three matchups while East Tennessee State has assists on 37 of 69 field goals (53.6 percent) during its past three games.
DID YOU KNOW: The disruptive East Tennessee State defense has forced opponents to turn the ball over on 24 percent of all possessions, the 30th-best rate in the country. Western Carolina has a forced-turnover percentage of only 18.6 percent through 16 games (ranking the Catamounts 256th among Division I teams).
