Full Saturday for the Ohio Valley Conference

(St. Louis, MO) – Eleven of the ever improving Ohio Valley Conference teams are in action Saturday. Every OVC team except Belmont is in action and several games have important post season ramifications.

Fighting Power 6 Teams

Tennessee Tech (4-6) @ Michigan State (6-4) – 1 pm BTN

The Golden Eagles have won two straight games but now play back-to-back games with ‘power 6’ teams. They battle the Spartans on Saturday and Tennessee on Tuesday. MSU is off to a slow start, but Tom Izzo’s team is still athletic and rebounds with a passion

Tennessee State (7-1) @ North Carolina State (6-2) – 3 pm ACC Network Extra

The only blemish on the Tigers’ record is a road loss at Vanderbilt. Dana Ford’s team’s best win was giving Middle Tennessee State its only loss of the season. TSU’s Wayne Martin leads the OVC in rebounding (10.0) and Tahjere McCall is the OVC leader in steals (2.6). NC-State is undefeated at home.

Battling the MVC

See “Missouri Valley Basketball – Another Big Weekend” for the game between UT Martin and Illinois State and Murray State’s visit to Evansville.

High Level Mid-Major Clashes

Austin Peay (4-4) @ Fort Wayne (7-3) – 1:30 pm

The defending Music City Madness champion Governors travel to Fort Wayne where the Mastodons are 6-0, including their upset win over Indiana. These two teams met earlier in Clarksville, with Fort Wayne winning 103-99. APSU’s Josh Robinson scored 33 points in defeat.

Eastern Kentucky (6-4) @ Ball State (5-4) – 1 pm ESPN3

The Colonels have won three straight and take on the reigning Mid-American West Division champions. EKU’s Nick Mayo is fourth in the league in scoring (19.5). Ball State’s Tayler Persons leads the Cardinals in scoring (15.2) and assists (5.6).

Playing for the Ax.

Eastern Illinois (5-4) @ Western Illinois (2-6) – 2 pm ESPN3

These two regional rivals complete their home-and-home series and play for the “Old Railsplitter Ax”. The tradition of playing for this travel trophy was renewed last year with the Leathernecks winning both games. EIU won the first game this year at Lantz Arena behind Demetrius McReynolds’ 21 point performance. Transfer Muusa Dama is second in the OVC in rebounding (9.4) and junior guard Cornell Johnston is third in assists (5.0).

The other four games.

Northern Kentucky (6-3) @ Southeast Missouri (4-5) – 2 pm OVC Digital Network                   

Missouri Western (D2) @ Southern Illinois University Edwardsville (4-5) – 2 pm OVC Digital Network 

Morehead State (2-5) @ Lipscomb (3-8) – 4 pm ESPN3

Jacksonville State (5-4) @ Louisiana-Monroe (2-5) – 7 pm