EDWARDSVILLE — The Southern Illinois University Edwardsville Cougars hit the road for an Ohio Valley Conference game Wednesday in Nashville, Tenn.
SIUE (9-16, 5-9) will play at Belmont (22-6, 12-2) at 7 p.m. The game will be broadcast on WSIE-FM with Cougar announcer Joe Pott calling the play by play.
It is the first meeting between the two schools in men's basketball.
The games features a matchup of the OVC's two newest members. The Cougars joined the OVC in July 2008 and played their first OVC season last year. This is the first year that SIUE is eligible for the OVC Championships. Belmont is playing its first OVC season this year.
The Bruins are hot.
Belmont has won 13 of its last 15 games. The Bruins enjoyed a 10-game winning streak from Jan. 3 to Feb. 2. They own the OVC's best record at 12-2 and are on top of the East Division.
The Bruins have not lost at home this year. They are a perfect 11-0.
Belmont is fifth in the country with 9.9 steals per game. The Bruins are 11th nationally in three-point percentage at 39.8 precent.
Ian Clark leads the team with 18.4 points a game. He is second nationally with a .473 three-point percentage. Trevor Noak is the rebounding leader with 5.6 per contest.
In SIUE's last game, Mark Yelovich's game-winning attempt from 25 feet away glanced off the front of the rim as time expired and Central Arkansas escaped with an 80-78 win over the Cougars on Saturday in the annual BracketBusters game.
Central Arkansas went up 2-0 on a pair of free throws by Anthony Borden. Michael Messer hit the first of three three-point shots to make it 3-2 Cougars and SIUE didn't trail again in the half. SIUE extended its lead to double digits when Ray Lester hit a turnaround jumper to make it 34-24 with 7:04 to play before halftime.
Kris Davis gave SIUE its largest lead of the day at 40-29 with 4 minutes to play in the first half. The Cougars led 43-36 at half.
