Northern Iowa visits Uchenna and Southern Illinois

Northern Iowa Panthers (9-9, 4-3 MVC) at Southern Illinois Salukis (3-12, 1-5 MVC)

Carbondale, Illinois; Friday, 7 p.m. EST

BOTTOM LINE: Southern Illinois hosts Northern Iowa after Gift Uchenna scored 26 points in Southern Illinois' 85-70 loss to the Evansville Purple Aces.

The Salukis are 1-5 on their home court. Southern Illinois is 2-2 when it has fewer turnovers than its opponents and averages 18.1 turnovers per game.

The Panthers are 4-3 in conference matchups. Northern Iowa scores 75.9 points and has outscored opponents by 5.7 points per game.

Southern Illinois averages 59.3 points per game, 10.9 fewer points than the 70.2 Northern Iowa gives up. Northern Iowa has shot at a 45.7% rate from the field this season, 2.4 percentage points higher than the 43.3% shooting opponents of Southern Illinois have averaged.

The matchup Friday is the first meeting of the season between the two teams in conference play.

TOP PERFORMERS: Uchenna is scoring 15.8 points per game with 13.4 rebounds and 0.5 assists for the Salukis. Kayla Cooper is averaging 9.0 points and 2.7 rebounds while shooting 30.3% over the past 10 games.

Maya McDermott is averaging 20.2 points, 4.9 assists and 1.5 steals for the Panthers. Kayba Laube is averaging 13.2 points over the last 10 games.

LAST 10 GAMES: Salukis: 2-8, averaging 60.0 points, 35.9 rebounds, 12.7 assists, 7.9 steals and 3.7 blocks per game while shooting 35.7% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 72.9 points per game.

Panthers: 5-5, averaging 74.2 points, 31.1 rebounds, 14.3 assists, 8.8 steals and 2.5 blocks per game while shooting 44.2% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 71.0 points.

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