Mississippi Valley State vs. Texas Southern: Full Game Preview

Mississippi Valley State

(4-20, 1-15 away)

Texas Southern

(12-14, 7-3 home)

Venue: Health & PE Arena

9:00PM ET / 6:00PM PT, February 18, 2013

Team Leaders

	Points	Rebounds	Assists
Mississippi Valley State	D Usher 18.3	M Smith 6.8	D Marshall 2.8
Texas Southern	O Strong 17.6	F Sturdivant 7.8	R Penn 5.5

Mississippi Valley State visits Health & PE Arena on Monday to take on Texas Southern. Tipoff occurs at 9 p.m. EST. The Delta Devils fell to the Tigers 75-48 on Jan. 21 and are 6-4 against them over the last four years.

Mississippi Valley State is in ninth place in the conference, Texas Southern is in second place.

The Delta Devils fell 80-77 to Prairie View A&M on Feb. 16. Davon Usher finished with 28 points in the loss. On top of his scoring average of 18.3 points per game, he delivers 5.9 rebounds per game. For the Tigers, Fred Sturdivant put up 15 points and 14 rebounds in the 75-69 win over Arkansas-Pine Bluff on Feb. 16. With 7.8 rebounds per game and 2.7 blocks per game, he has team-best marks in both categories.

Texas Southern has a statistical edge over Mississippi Valley State in two specific areas. One concern is assists, where the Tigers hold the advantage over the Delta Devils, 14 per game to 9 per game. Additionally, Texas Southern has an edge over Mississippi Valley State in scoring, 69 points per game to 61 points per game. From a tempo-free perspective, Texas Southern is strong in turnover percentage at 17.8 percent. This is good enough for second in the conference and 49th in the nation.

Texas Southern StatSmack

Mississippi Valley State has an average margin of victory of 12 over Texas Southern in 39 wins since 1980.
Mississippi Valley State is taller. The average height of the top 8 players on Mississippi Valley State is 75.9 inches compared to 74.6 inches for Texas Southern.
Mississippi Valley State has come back to win after being down at half against Texas Southern seven times since 1997.
Davon Usher is ranked 3rd in the SWAC in points, 9th in the SWAC in rebounds, 8th in the SWAC in three-pointers, and 7th in the SWAC in steals.
Itta Bena isn't as congested as Houston (population is significantly lower).
That must sting. Mississippi Valley State has blown out Texas Southern by 20 points or more on seven occasions since 1996.
Matt Smith is ranked 5th in the SWAC in rebounds and 4th in the SWAC in blocks.
Mississippi Valley State has a better overall winning percentage over the last 10 years (43.6 percent to 40.6 percent).
The Mississippi Valley State steals leader (Davon Usher, 34 steals) has more steals than the Texas Southern steals leader (Omar Strong, 26 steals).

MVSU Players		Mins	Pts	Reb	Ast	Stl	Blk	TO
C+	Davon Usher	33	18	6	1	2	0	2
C	Matt Smith	30	10	7	0	1	1	2
D+	Darryl Marshall	26	7	2	3	1	0	2
D	Ervin Thomas	18	4	4	1	1	0	1
D	Darius Tomlin	19	6	2	2	1	0	3
D	Blake Ralling	19	4	3	1	1	0	1
D	Julius Francis	18	4	3	0	0	0	2
D-	Cameron Dobbs	11	4	1	0	0	0	1
D-	Marcus Johnson	14	3	1	0	0	0	1
F	Nate Brandt	20	2	2	1	0	0	2
F	C. Samples	9	3	1	0	0	0	1
F	Montreal Holley	10	1	1	0	0	0	0
F	Cortlan Henry	12	2	1	0	0	0	1
F	Arthur Framery	3	0	0	0	0	0	0

TSU Players		Mins	Pts	Reb	Ast	Stl	Blk	TO
B	Omar Strong	35	18	4	2	1	0	2
B-	Fred Sturdivant	29	10	8	1	1	3	1
C+	Ray Penn	34	12	2	6	1	0	3
C	Madarious Gibbs	28	6	3	3	1	0	1
C	L. Johnson-Danner	24	9	3	1	1	0	1
C	Aaron Clayborn	20	7	5	1	0	0	1
C-	Kyrie Sutton	16	6	5	0	0	1	1
D+	Billy Rosenberg	5	2	1	0	0	0	0
D	D. Ellington	19	3	2	1	0	0	1
D	Ethan Blackwell	3	0	1	0	0	0	0