The Illinois Springfield men's basketball team returns to action Wednesday evening in Owensboro, Kentucky, with a non-conference matchup against Kentucky Wesleyan. Tipoff is set for 6:00 p.m. CT and opens a three-game stretch of December non-conference play for the Prairie Stars.

Illinois Springfield (7-2, 4-0 GLVC)
UIS enters the contest riding a four-game winning streak to open Great Lakes Valley Conference play. Key league victories include an 86-76 road win at Missouri-St. Louis and a 63-58 home victory over McKendree.

UIS most recently earned an 81-68 win over Maryville on Dec. 6 behind an efficient offensive effort. Tye Banks led the Prairie Stars with 22 points on eight made field goals, while Britton Dutton connected on four of six three-point attempts to finish with 14 points. Jordan Rice continued his strong start to the season with 20 points and seven assists. UIS shot 51 percent from the field and added 23 points at the free-throw line.

Rice ranks second in the GLVC in scoring at 21.7 points per game and enters the week five points shy of 200 on the season. Isaiah Davis leads the conference in field-goal percentage at 47.5 percent, a mark that ranks 24th nationally in NCAA Division II, and averages a league-best 4.2 three-pointers per game. Freshman Alex Stell ranks third in the GLVC in blocked shots (1.2 per game) and fourth in rebounding (8.1 per game).

As a team, UIS ranks 22nd nationally in three-point field-goal percentage, shooting 39.57 percent from beyond the arc.

Kentucky Wesleyan (6-4, 2-2 G-MAC)
Kentucky Wesleyan enters Wednesday's matchup having won its last two games after dropping three straight to start its conference schedule. The Panthers recently defeated Ashland 72-65 in a wire-to-wire victory, leading 38-30 at halftime while holding Ashland to 12.5 percent shooting from three-point range. Four Panthers scored in double figures in the win.

On Dec. 13 against Tiffin, Jorge Sanchez-Ramos led Kentucky Wesleyan with 18 points, followed by Armandas Plintauskas and Fatih Huyuk with 17 points apiece. The Panthers have relied on balanced scoring during their recent stretch of play.

Against GLVC opponents this season, Kentucky Wesleyan is 1-2, with a win over Indianapolis and losses to then-No. 8 Missouri S&T and Missouri-St. Louis in November. The Panthers currently sit sixth in the 12-team Great Midwest Athletic Conference standings, which are led by Findlay and Malone at 3-1.

Follow Along
The game will be streamed on FloCollege, with live statistics available online.