Storylines – vs West Virginia State
Off to a 1-1 start in league play, West Virginia State will look to rebound from its worst showing of the season, a 73-43 home loss to California University of Pennsylvania. The Yellow Jackets turned the ball over 35 times in the loss while shooting just 28.6 percent from the season. Former Glenville State Head Coach Charles Marshall is in his third season with the Yellow Jackets and had adopted a similar up-tempo, pressing style of play in Institute. West Virginia State is second in the league in forced turnovers with 119 through five games. The Yellow Jackets are also among the best in the league in field goal defense, holding opponents to 41 percent shooting to rank fourth in the league. Despite starting just two games, Jordan Miller is the team's leading scorer. The 5-foot-5 guard tallied a season-high 25 points last week in a 84-78 win over Fairmont State.  West Virginia State finished third in the league a year ago with a 13-9 conference mark and was picked to finish fifth in the MEC in this year's Preseason Coaches' Poll.
About UVa-Wise
UVa-Wise has used its defense to stay in and win games in the early part of the season. Jamie Cluesman's team leads the league in 3-point field goal defense at 27.1 percent while ranking second in the league in field goal defense (38.6 percent) and scoring defense (66.6 points per game). The Cavaliers have had issues on offense scoring just 64.2 points per game and making 35.8 percent of their field goal attempts. Most recently, the team split a pair of league games last week. In a 72-52 win over Urbana, UVa-Wise shot 41.3 percent from the field and made 17-of-21 free throw attempts while the team made just 31 percent of its field goal attempts and 6-of-15 free throw attempts in a 64-53 loss to Notre Dame College. The inconsistent play has been evident in the team's results thus far. To date, the Cavaliers have alternated wins and losses having yet to win or lose two in a row. In wins, the team is shooting 42.4 percent compared to 31.6 percent in losses.