Southern and Grambling will face off on the hardwood this evening in a matchup of the top two teams in the Southwestern Athletic Conference.
Both teams enter tonight’s game with matching 10-3 conference records.
Southern enters the game with a 16-10 overall record and coming off a 68-56 loss in their last outing against Texas Southern last Saturday.
The Jaguars are the third-best offense in the SWAC, averaging 73.8 points per contest and the second-best defense, allowing 70.3 points per game.
Tai’Reon Joseph leads the Jaguars and the SWAC in scoring, averaging 20.5 points per game. However, the high-scoring guard has been absent from the Southern lineup since leaving their game against Alcorn State on Feb. 3 early in the second half.
In his absence, redshirt senior Brandon Davis has stepped up, averaging 18 points in the four games Joseph has missed.
Davis must continue his elevated play if Joseph remains absent from the Southern lineup. Additional contributions will be Ned’s from junior guard Tidjiame Dioumassi, who has scored double figures in four of his last five outings.
Grambling comes into tonight’s contest winners of their last two games.
Junior guard Kintavious Dozier is the Tigers’ leading scorer, averaging 14.3 points per contest. Over Grambling’s last five games, four of which were wins for the Tigers, Dozier has averaged 15.6 points on 52.9% shooting from the floor. Grambling features the third-best scoring defense in the SWAC, trailing only Southern and Alabama State, allowing 70.5 points per contest.
However, the Tigers’ defense gets even more stingy against SWAC opponents, allowing a SWAC-leading 63.5 points per game in conference play. Grambling will need to continue bringing their stingy defense to Saturday’s matchup to slow down a Jaguar offense averaging 71.5 points inside SWAC play.
Offensive execution will be vital for the Jaguars. Southern is the third most prolific scoring offense in conference play and is the second-best shooting team from the field at 45.1% and third-best from three-point range at 35%.
If they play to their averages, the Jaguars can open up a lead that Grambling’s 10th-worst scoring offenses may be hard-pressed to make up.
Grambling is the best scoring defense in conference play. Their defense can allow them to keep the score down, which will only help their offense, which scores 68.4 points per contest.
Although Grambling is just the 8th best rebounding team in the SWAC, Southern is even worse, as they are the second to worst rebounding team in the conference.
If the Tigers can also control the backboards, they have an excellent chance of leaving Baton Rouge with a victory.
