Storylines – vs. Mars Hill University
Head Coach Vic Finora's Lions of Mars Hill University visit Wise Tuesday night for the team's first conference matchup of the season. The Lions enter into the Tuesday night game with a 2-4 overall record and a pair of exhibition losses to Elon, 90-84, and Middle Tennessee, 96-82. Coach Finora's squad was selected to finish one spot above the Cavaliers at No. 10 in the South Atlantic Conference preseason poll after concluding the 2018-19 campaign with a 9-19 overall mark and a 3-17 league record. This season, preseason All-SAC first team selection Ja'Shawn Brooks serves as the leading scorer for the Lions through their first six contests, averaging 22.8 points per game (2nd in the SAC) while shooting 36.1 percent (26-for-72) from the floor, 39.5 percent (17-for-43) from three, and 95.7 percent (45-for-47) from the charity stripe. As a team this season, the Lions are averaging 91.8 points per game on 43.7 percent shooting from the field while also averaging 10.5 made three-pointers per contest. Mars Hill is recording 40.5 rebounds,  4.8 steals, and 3.5 blocks per game while averaging 17.2 turnovers per game. Junior Jamal Bryant leads the Lions in rebounding, posting 7.8 boards per game to rank sixth in the SAC. Coach Finora's team will return home for another SAC contest against Newberry College Saturday at 4 p.m. to close out November.

About UVA Wise
Head coach Blake Mellinger's team pushed their win streak to three games this past Friday with an 88-80 victory over Alice Lloyd College. In the win, three Cavaliers posted a double-double including sophomore Josh Thomas who made his first career start and finished with a career-high 12 points and 10 boards. Senior Eric Okenchi used a strong second half performance to collect a season-high 22 points alongside 13 rebounds while sophomore Cameron Whiteside notched his fourth double-figure scoring game of the campaign with 20 points and a career-high 10 rebounds in the Friday  night victory. Through the first five games of the season, Whiteside serves as the Cavs leading scorer with 16.6 points per game while redshirt sophmore Briggs Parris is averaging 15.8 ppg. Okenchi (12.4 ppg) and sophomore Kaeleb Carter (10.5 ppg) are the only other two Cavaliers averaging double figures so far this season. Senior Chance Sheffey remains the assist leader for UVA Wise with 6.4 per game, ranking him atop the category in the conference while UVA Wise is registering 19.4 assists per game as a team. Currently, the Cavs are averaging 85.6 ppg while holding opponents to 75.2 ppg. From the field, UVA Wise is shooting 45.7 percent and 72.8 percent from the foul line while recording 43.4 rebounds per game compared to just 34 rpg for opponents. Whiteside also leads the team in rebounding with 7.2 rpg while Parris' 3.8 three-pointers made per game lead the Cavs and rank first in the SAC. Coach Mellinger's team will stay home for another league matchup Saturday afternoon against Anderson at 4 p.m. to wrap up the month of November.