ITTA BENA, Miss. – The Mississippi Valley State University men’s basketball program gets its second and final crack at notching a win over their new Florida SWAC rivals during the regular season as the Rattlers slither into Itta Bena.
Records: Mississippi Valley State (1-14, 1-4 SWAC) | Florida A&M (4-11, 2-2 SWAC)
Location: Itta Bena, Mississippi – R.W. Harrison HPER Complex
Series History: Mississippi Valley State Leads 2-0
Last Meeting: 1985-86 | Mississippi Valley State 76, Florida A&M 72 | Tallahassee, Florida (Jake Gaither Gymnasium)
Winning Streak: Mississippi Valley State (W2) | Florida A&M’s Last Win: N/A
Mississippi Valley State Overview
The Green and White have played solid defense and jacked up a ton of threes, ranking just outside the top-25 nationally for turnovers forced (16.40), second in the SWAC regarding turnover margin (2.1), and has attempted the second-most triples in the conference (363).
Daniel Umoh has now brought in 11 rebounds in consecutive games and is two contests removed from an impressive double-double at TSU.
Elijah Davis has been the main distributor for the offense, averaging 3.5 assists (7th in SWAC) and holding an assist-to-turnover ratio of 1.68 (3rd in SWAC). He can also get the job done on the defensive end of the floor with 1.33 steals on average.
David McCoy is the top thief and second-best rebounder for Coach Hunter, swiping 1.60 steals a contest to crack the top-ten leaguewide and posting a team-best 52 rebounds.
Caleb Hunter is the squad’s leading scorer at 12.6 points per game and is one of the better three-point shooters in the conference, making the fourth-most so far at 32 triples.
Scouting The Opponent: Florida A&M Rattlers
The Rattlers have had a solid start to its maiden SWAC voyage, dropping the first two contests before taking down Grambling State (75-66) and Arkansas-Pine Bluff (71-66).
The Orange and Green are sound offensively and stout defensively, giving away a miniscule 12.9 turnovers per game to lead the SWAC while holding the opposition to a 43.5% field-goal percentage, which is a top-five rate league wise.
The offense lives and dies off its phenomenal guard, MJ Randolph, who leads the conference in points per game by a healthy margin (20.5) to rank 15th nationally on top of swiping the 17th-most steals per game in the country with 2.27. The Preseason All-SWAC Second Team selection is making his case for Player of the Year and possibly even getting a little love from the national media as well.
His partner in crime lurking in the paint is Bryce Moragne, ranking third in the league for rebounding at 7.4 boards per night.
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