Men’s Basketball to Visit Tennessee Southern for Conference Tournament Opener
COLUMBIA, Ky. – It has been 112 days since the 2022-23 Lindsey Wilson men's basketball season began on Halloween Night. Since then, the Blue Raiders have battled through the ups and downs of a turbulent schedule plagued by injuries. But now it is postseason time, and the locals are looking sharper than ever as they prepare to travel to the University of Tennessee Southern on Tuesday evening for the Opening Round of the Mid-South Conference tournament.
The Blue Raiders and the Firehawks met twice during the regular season. Tennessee Southern won the first match-up, 76-50, in Pulaski back on November 19, 2022, and the second game in Columbia by a narrow, 77-73 result.
Despite dropping both contests, the difference in performance by Lindsey Wilson between the two games is almost night and day. Compared to the first game, the Blue Raiders shot 14 percent better from behind the three-point line. They also nearly doubled their free throw percentage, corralled six more rebounds, committed 12 fewer turnovers, and scored 23 more points.
Jamyus Jones started in both of the regular season games against the Firehawks, averaging a team-high 10.5 points per game, including an effort of 17 points in the latter of the two meetings. The senior is boasting a 0.413 field goal percentage over his last nine outings and has made 19 of his last 20 free throw attempts.
The only Blue Raider with a higher scoring average than Jones over the last nine games is Payton Cundiff with a mark of 11.9. Entering his last playoffs with Lindsey Wilson, Cundiff is on a nine-game tear that includes eight instances of plus-0.500 shooting performances and eight different games with two or more three-point field goals made. The senior is also 12 for his last 13 from the charity stripe. The Somerset native will tie the program's all-time record for career games played on Tuesday at 137.
Tennessee Southern won two of its five games in February and will enter postseason play 17-10 overall. Nine of those victories have come on the Firehawks' home floor, including six of the last seven.
Aside from holding the league's top free throw percentage and second-best three-point field goal percentage, Tennessee Southern ranks near or in the middle of the pack in just about every statistical category in the conference.
Kavion Hancock, Brady Brown, and Adarion Hudson each sport scoring averages of over 10 points per game with Hancock leading the way – 16.1. Brown adds on a team-best rebounding showing of 7.3 a night, and Hudson contributes a league-high 6.4 assists per contest.
Tuesday's playoff opener tips off from Tennessee Southern's Robert E. Curry Christian Life Center at 6 p.m. CST.
