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The Texas Southern Tigers and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi Islanders are set to face off in an NCAA Tournament play-in game on Tuesday, March 16th. The game will tip-off at 6:40 p.m. ET from the UD Arena in Dayton, Ohio and will be broadcast on TruTV. The winner of this First Four matchup will face No. 1 seed Kansas Jayhawks in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
No. 16 Texas Southern vs. No. 16 Texas A&M-Corpus Christi
Date: Tuesday, March 15
Tip time: 6:40 p.m. ET
TV channel: truTV
Live stream: truTV Watch, truTV App
Texas Southern went 18-12 this season and won the SWAC tournament to secure the automatic bid. The Tigers are led in scoring by senior forward John Walker III who averaged 9.9 points per game. The strength of Texas Southern is that they held teams to 45.2% shooting for the field, which is the 21st-best mark in the NCAA. Their defense ranks above the national average, but boy are they bad at shooting free throws. Out of 358 teams in the NCAA, the Tigers ranked 319th in free throw percentage.
Texas A&M-Corpus Christi entered their conference tournament as the No. 4 seed, but won the championship and earned a spot in the Big Dance. The player to watch for the Islanders will be junior forward Isaac Mushila, who led the team in points (13.5) and rebounds (9.5) per game in the regular season. The Islanders are going to have a tough time shooting against Texas Southern. The Tigers' defense is good, but Texas A&M-Corpus Christi only shoots 47.3% from the field. If they want to stay in this game, the Islanders will have to rely on their ability to force turnovers as they create the 18th-most in the country.
March Madness Odds from DraftKings Sportsbook
Point spread: Texas Southern -3.5
Point total: 134.5
Moneyline: Texas Southern -160, Texas A&M-CC +140
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