#683/684 ASA TOP PLAY ON 10* Over 150 Points – Samford vs East Tennessee State, Saturday at 4 PM ET - These 2 met in mid January and easily eclipsed this number with ETSU beating Samford 88-85 for 173 total points. We see this game playing out in a similar fashion. In that first meeting the 2 teams combined to shoot just over 50% which wasn’t surprising as ETSU ranks last (10th) in eFG% defense and defensive efficiency and Samford ranks 7th in eFG% defense. Samford is one of the fastest paced teams in the nation and ranks 2nd in pace in conference play. ETSU sits at 7th in the Southern Conference in pace but they’ve shown they’ll play however their opponent wants to play. The Buccaneers can play slow or fast and in this game it will be fast. The 4 fastest paced teams in the SoCon are Citadel, Samford, Western Carolina, and VMI. When those teams have faced ETSU this season their games have averaged 163 total points with only 1 of those 5 games falling below 150 and that was 148. For the season, the offenses are definitely the strength of both of these teams while their defense fall short. Both rank inside the top 150 in offensive efficiency and inside the top 132 in eFG%. Defensively they both rank outside the top 250 in defensive efficiency and outside the top 280 in eFG% defense. In addition to that, each of the teams offensive strength plays perfectly into their opponents defensive weakness. Samford ranks 46th nationally in 2-point FG% and ETSU’s defense ranks 338th defending inside the arc. ETSU ranks 36th in 3-point FG% and they are facing a Samford defense that ranks 257th defending the arc. These two have gone OVER the total in 9 of their last 10 meetings and they’ve averaged 159 total points in those 10 games. Only once in the last 10 games have these 2 combined to score less than 150 points. We go OVER the total in this one.