Who’s Playing
Md.-E. Shore Hawks @ Illinois Fighting Illini
Current Records: Md.-E. Shore 2-5, Illinois 3-1
How To Watch
What to Know
The Md.-E. Shore Hawks will face off against the Illinois Fighting Illini at 4:00 p.m. ET on Saturday at State Farm Center. The Hawks are no doubt hoping to put an end to a 20-game streak of away losses dating back to last season.
On Wednesday, Md.-E. Shore lost to Murray State on the road by a decisive 79-61 margin. The game marked the Hawks’ lowest-scoring contest so far this season.
Md.-E. Shore’s defeat shouldn’t obscure the performances of Evan Johnson, who went 8 for 12 en route to 23 points, and Ketron Shaw, who posted 24 points plus seven rebounds. That was a full 39.3% of Md.-E. Shore’s points, marking the third time in a row he’s posted more than a third of the team’s points.
Md.-E. Shore struggled to work together and finished the game with only two assists. That’s the fewest assists they’ve posted since the start of last season.
Meanwhile, Illinois’ undefeated season came to an end after three games on Wednesday. They fell 100-87 to Alabama. The loss was the Fighting Illini’s first of the season.
The losing side was boosted by Will Riley, who almost dropped a double-double on 18 points and nine rebounds. He had some trouble finding his footing against Oakland last Wednesday, so this was a nice turnaround. The team also got some help courtesy of Tomislav Ivisic, who dropped a double-double on 14 points and ten rebounds.
Md.-E. Shore’s loss dropped their record down to 2-5. As for Illinois, their defeat was their first of the season and makes their record 3-1.
Some high-performance offense is likely on the agenda as both are some of the highest scoring teams in the league. Md.-E. Shore hasn’t had any problem running up the score this season, having averaged 79.7 points per game. However, it’s not like Illinois struggles in that department as they’ve been averaging 88.8. With both teams so easily able to put up points, the only question left is who can run the score up higher.