 The Cardinals can clinch the West title tonight / Photo: BSU Photo Services
Northern Illinois (10-17, 5-9 MAC) at Eastern Michigan (6-23, 4-10 MAC)
7 p.m. • Northern Illinois leads series 45-26
• The Northern Illinois men’s basketball will look to capture its fourth-consecutive win, and secure the regular-season sweep over Eastern Michigan, when the Huskies face the host Eagles at the Convocation Center in Ypsilanti, Mich.... NIU is just 2-9 on the road this season, but is coming off a dominating 97-73 win over host Southeast Missouri in the ESPNU BracketBuster (Feb. 21) game in its last road outing... Darion Anderson, the 2008 Mid-American Conference Freshman of the Year, averages a team-best 16.7 points per game and is also leading the team in field goals (143), free throws (110), rebounds (144) and and steals (38), while ranking second in assists (65)... EMU turned in back-to-back wins last week, beating Toledo at home Wednesday, Feb. 25, 58-49, and capturing a 57-56 road win at Central Michigan, the Eagles’ first two-game streak this season... Junior center Justin Dobbins and redshirt sophomore Brandon Bowdry continue to climb the EMU career scoring and rebounding lists. Dobbins is the 56th player in school history to reach the 700-point plateau with 737 in his 85-game EMU career. That total ranks 48th in school history and his 382 career rebounds is good for 43rd. Bowdry has scored 693 career points in his 61-game career to rank in 58th and his 374 rebounds is good for the 45th spot.
Toledo (6-23, 4-10 MAC) at Central Michigan (9-18, 5-9 MAC)
7 p.m. • Toledo leads series 53-26
• The Rockets are coming off a 63-62 home triumph over Western Michigan on Saturday and will be returning to the site of their last road win. UT is 0-15 on the road this season and its last victory on an opponent’s homecourt was a 90-83 (OT) triumph at CMU on March 9, 2008... The Rockets have won their last 12 meetings with CMU, including five in a row in Rose Arena. Toledo has a 20-16 all-time mark on the road vs. the Chippewas...Tyrone Kent is pacing the Rockets’ attack with 15.0 ppg with Amos closely behind at 13.4 ppg. Mohamed Lo has emerged as another offensive threat recently, averaging 11.0 ppg and 7.0 rpg in his last five contests... Three players in Wednesday’s game have the top single game rebounding marks in the MAC this season. CMU’s Marcus Van pulled down a conference-best 20 boards at Northern Illinois this season while Toledo’s Justin Anyijong and Mohamed Lo tie for the second-best mark with 17 each. Anyijong’s came against CMU while Lo recorded his against Rhode Island... CMU enters its final home game with a 7-6 record in Rose Arena this season. A win on Wednesday would give CMU a winning homecourt record for the second straight season and the sixth time in the last 10 years.
Ball State (13-14, 7-7 MAC) at Western Michigan (9-19, 6-8 MAC)
7 p.m. • Series tied 54-54
• The Cardinals head into the final two Mid-American Conference regular season games with a one game lead over MAC West Division rival Western Michigan ... Ball State can clinch the MAC West Division title outright with a victory over WMU Wednesday while the Broncos can move into a first place tie with the Cardinals heading into the regular season finale with a victory over BSU ... Ball State has not claimed a MAC West Division title since the 2001-02 season, while Western Michigan won the division crown last season... Freshman forward Jarrod Jones leads the Cardinals in scoring at 10.8 points per game and in rebounding at 7.4 boards per contest ... Jones is second among freshmen in the Mid-American Conference in scoring and first in the MAC on the glass for freshmen ... He also leads all freshman in field goal percentage 44.9...WMU’s Shawntes Gary needs four rebounds to become the fourth player in the 96-year history of WMU men’s basketball to tally 1,000 points, 500 rebounds and 100 steals... 2008-09 Academic All-American David Kool ranks second in scoring (17.9) and free throw shooting (.894), fourth in threes per game (2.00), 13th in steals (1.46) and 14th in defensive rebounding (3.57). In conference games, Kool leads everyone in scoring with 18.3 points per game. Kool has hit 28 consecutive free throws to move into fourth place in the country in free throw shooting. With 144 this season, Kool is 10th in makes for a season and fifth in his career with 379. His .886 career mark at the line is tops in MAC history.
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