Sam Houston State (12-6, 5-2) vs. Houston Baptist (1-13, 1-4)
Sharp Gymnasium, Houston; Saturday, 8 p.m. EST
BOTTOM LINE: Sam Houston State looks for its sixth straight win in the head-to-head series over Houston Baptist. Sam Houston State has won by an average of 7 points in its last five wins over the Huskies. Houston Baptist's last win in the series came on Feb. 16, 2017, an 88-77 win.
BIG MEN ON CAMPUS: This game represents a Texas homecoming for Bearkats senior Chad Bowie, who has averaged 9.8 points, four rebounds and 2.6 steals on the season. Kai Mitchell, who's put up 14.4 points and 7.1 rebounds per game, and Zach Nutall, who's averaged 13.7 points and 4.5 rebounds, have helped Bowie with leadership duties this year. On the other bench, Ian DuBose has averaged 19.1 points and 6.6 rebounds while Jalon Gates has put up 16.7 points.
RAMP IT UP A NOTCH: The Huskies have scored 89.6 points per game against conference opponents so far, an improvement from the 77.6 per game they managed against non-conference competition.
OFFENSIVE THREAT: DuBose has been directly responsible for 41 percent of all Houston Baptist field goals over the last five games. The junior guard has 41 field goals and 25 assists in those games.
BEHIND THE ARC: Houston Baptist's Gates has attempted 123 3-pointers and connected on 39.8 percent of them, and is 17 of 43 over his last five games.
ASSIST-TO-FG RATIO: The Bearkats have recently used assists to create buckets more often than the Huskies. Houston Baptist has 39 assists on 90 field goals (43.3 percent) over its previous three matchups while Sam Houston State has assists on 46 of 85 field goals (54.1 percent) during its past three games.
DID YOU KNOW: The Sam Houston State offense has scored 80.1 points per game this season, ranking the Bearkats 19th among Division I teams. The Houston Baptist defense has allowed 102.4 points per game to opponents (ranked 310th overall).
