Samford hosts VMI following Faulkner's 27-point game

Audio By Carbonatix

VMI Keydets (6-23, 1-15 SoCon) at Samford Bulldogs (16-13, 9-7 SoCon)

Birmingham, Alabama; Thursday, 8 p.m. EST

BOTTOM LINE: Samford plays VMI after Dylan Faulkner scored 27 points in Samford's 89-86 loss to the Mercer Bears.

The Bulldogs are 9-3 on their home court. Samford is ninth in the SoCon with 7.4 offensive rebounds per game led by Faulkner averaging 2.5.

The Keydets are 1-15 in SoCon play. VMI is 5-11 when it has fewer turnovers than its opponents and averages 9.6 turnovers per game.

Samford is shooting 44.9% from the field this season, 1.1 percentage points lower than the 46.0% VMI allows to opponents. VMI averages 10.8 made 3-pointers per game this season, 3.2 more made shots on average than the 7.6 per game Samford allows.

The teams meet for the second time in conference play this season. Samford won 78-58 in the last matchup on Jan. 1. Faulkner led Samford with 25 points, and TJ Johnson led VMI with 17 points.

TOP PERFORMERS: Jadin Booth is scoring 20.9 points per game with 3.5 rebounds and 2.4 assists for the Bulldogs. Faulkner is averaging 18.4 points and 10.6 rebounds over the last 10 games.

Johnson averages 3.5 made 3-pointers per game for the Keydets, scoring 18.5 points while shooting 35.6% from beyond the arc. Tan Yildizoglu is averaging 12.2 points, 5.3 assists and 1.5 steals over the past 10 games.

LAST 10 GAMES: Bulldogs: 7-3, averaging 80.4 points, 32.7 rebounds, 14.2 assists, 4.8 steals and 1.8 blocks per game while shooting 48.0% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 73.3 points per game.

Keydets: 0-10, averaging 69.1 points, 25.8 rebounds, 12.3 assists, 6.1 steals and 1.5 blocks per game while shooting 40.1% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 86.1 points.

___

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