The No. 8 seed Eastern Kentucky Colonels face the No. 9 seed Cleveland State Vikings at 11 a.m. EDT on Sunday in the College Basketball Invitational at Ocean Center in Daytona Beach, Florida. Eastern Kentucky is 20-13 overall and finished 12-6 in the ASUN Conference. Cleveland State is 21-13 and went 14-6 in the Horizon League.
Eastern Kentucky is led by upperclassmen Michael Moreno and Devontae Blanton. Blanton has averaged 16.6 ppg and 6.4 rpg this season. He has averaged 18.8 points over his last 10 games. Moreno is the team leader in rebounding with 6.5 a contest and is second in scoring at 11.6 ppg.
Utah transfer Tristan Enaruna leads Cleveland State with 15.7 points per game and 6.6 rebounds per game. He also averaged 1.0 steals and 1.1 blocks per game. Tae Williams is second on the team with 11.0 ppg while making 51.5% of his shots. Williams also averaged 6.0 rebounds and 1.4 steals a contest.
The Vikings made it to the Horizon League Championship game but lost out on a spot in the NCAA Tournament 63-61 to Northern Kentucky. They won seven of their last nine games. Eastern Kentucky went 6-4 of the last 10 games. One of those losses came in the ASUN title game against Liberty, 79-73.
