First Place Battle in the OVC

WIU Visits Morehead State

(St. Louis, MO) – First place in the Ohio Valley Conference is at stake today. Newcomer Western Illinois (13-7, 6-1) visits defending champion Morehead State (15-5, 6-1) for outright leadership of the OVC.

The league’s top two teams receive a double-bye at the conference tournament while the third and fourth place teams receive a single bye. Heading into Saturday’s games, five teams are tied for third place.

First Place Battle – 2:30 pm on ESPN+

Western Illinois is obviously very comfortable in their new conference. During OVC action the Leathernecks and Morehead are the top two scoring defense teams as each allow just 62.57 points per game. WIU’s frontcourt size has helped them to a conference leading 13.4 rebounding margin and averaging 5.7 blocked shots per OVC game. They go and get more offensive rebounds than any OVC team and by a wide margin.

Big man Drew Cisse (6’11) averages eleven rebounds per game and 2.4 blocks. He is a Leatherneck game changer. Ryan Myers (15.7 ppg) and James Dent Jr (11.7) are Chad Boudreau’s leading scorers. The multi-faceted Jesiah West grabs 7.7 rebounds and records a team high 3.6 assists per game.

Morehead State newcomer and ‘Newcomer of the Year’ candidate Riley Minix has been amazing. The 6’7 wing is the OVC’s most accurate shooter (.622), second leading scorer (22.1), rebounder (8.6) and fourth leading free-throw shooter (.912).

But he’s not a one man show.

Preston Spradlin’s team is very balanced. They lead the league in defensive rebounding and are second to WIU in rebound margin. As usual they’re efficiently run offense leads the OVC in made three-pointers (8.4 per game).

Jordan Lathon (19.3 ppg and 6.9 rebounds) is the ‘Robin’ to Minix’s ‘Batman’ and don’t forget about Drew Thelwell. Lathon has made all twenty of his in conference free throw attempts. The 6’3 Thelwell hands out a league-leading six assists per game and rarely leaves the floor.

Guard Kalil Thomas leads the OVC making three triples per game.

How well Morehead can keep Cisse off the offensive glass will be key. He grabs nearly six offensive rebounds per game. The Leathernecks, who lead the league in field goal percentage defense must chase the Eagles off the three point line.

Other OVC Action

Two of those 4-3 teams tied for third place play one another. Tennessee State visits Eastern Illinois. In other OVC action, Southeast Missouri visits Little Rock, Lindenwood travels to UT Martin and Southern Illinois Edwardsville entertains Tennessee Tech.

While most eyes will be on the first place battle, all five OVC games can be seen on ESPN+.

The two teams hav a rematch in Macomb on February 22. That game and today’s first place battle will go a long way in determining the regular season title.

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Editor: Cover photo of Jordan Lathon courtesy of msueagles.com.