The Matchup: Evangel (15-6, 7-2 HAAC) at Benedictine (10-10, 5-4 HAAC), Ralph Nolan Gymnasium, Atchison, Kan., 4:00pm

Last Meeting: Evangel 62, Benedictine 36 (12/3/11 at Evangel)

Last 10 Meetings: Evangel leads series, 10-0

Last Time Out: Graceland 78, Benedictine 72 (1/26 at GU); Evangel 103, Peru State 58 (1/21 at PSC)

About the Crusaders: Evangel finished the first half of conference play by enacting revenge for its one-point loss to MidAmerica Nazarene last Thursday with a 103-58 win over Peru State. The Crusaders shot 61 percent from the field and hit 13-of-22 from three-point range, the team's best road output of the season and most points in a road conference game since posting 93 at Graceland on December 4, 2010. Despite the strong bounce-back performance, the pressure is still on the Crusaders to keep pace with the Pioneers, who hold a 1.5 game lead with nine contests remaining. Four of the five Evangel starters average in double figures, led by Stephen Cotten with 12.1 points per game to go along with a team-best 6.9 rebounds. In a game between the top two defensive teams in the conference, possessions are at a premium and the Crusaders average a conference-low 13.9 turnovers per game while forcing 17.0 per contest. Junior guard Jayme Donnelly, who leads the NAIA in 3-point shooting at 49.4 percent, is 6-of-8 from beyond the arc in his past two games to help his team to a 20-of-35 clip (.571) last week.

About the Ravens: After winning its first five games of January, Benedictine has dropped the last three, including a six-point loss at Graceland on Thursday evening. The Ravens yielded 12 three-pointers to the Yellowjackets on 21 attempts (.571). The 78 points allowed were the most the Ravens had surrendered since the first time the teams met on December 1 and second-most all season. Offense was a problem the last time the Ravens faced the Crusaders as they scored a season-low 36 points and shot just 24.6 percent from the field. The emergence of senior guard Quaran Johnson off the bench has helped stabilize the Benedictine attack as he has scored in double figures in six-straight games and leads the team with a 13.1 per game average. He has hit two three-pointers in five-straight contests to raise his 3-point clip to over 40 percent, giving the Ravens a second long-range threat along with Chris McFaul (32-of-90). However, the Ravens rely heavily on their top five players for most of the offense and get just over 10 points from the reserves.

Free Throws: Evangel head coach Steve Jenkins is 7th among all active NAIA Division I coaches in wins with 551 in his 30th season in charge ... Contrarily, Benedictine head coach Ryan Moody graduated from Benedictine when Jenkins was already halfway into his tenure with the Crusaders ... The Ravens scoring average is nearly identical to the Crusaders' scoring defense average with 63.4 for Benedictine and 63.6 allowed for Evangel ... Despite the loss on Thursday, Benedictine got a strong game from Charlie Wallrapp, who had 18 points and 9 rebounds while hitting 7-of-12 from the field ... Evangel has two of the top free throw shooters in the conference in Zack Kleine (.870) and Victor Agbasi (.826) with Kleine ranking 3rd in the NAIA in that category ... The Ravens' Alex Miller is approaching 1,000 point for his career, sitting at 908 after 8 points on Thursday agaisnt Graceland.