HENDERSON, Tenn. - After reaching their highest ranking of the season, the No. 3 Freed-Hardeman Lions will look to keep their lead in the American Midwest Conference standings as they visit Benedictine-Springfield (Ill.) for a 6:00 PM tip-off.

GAME COVERAGE
Video: BenU Game Central
Stats: Live Stats

SETTING THE STAGE
FHU (21-2, 16-1) reached No. 3 in this week's national coaches poll, its highest since being ranked No. 1 last season. Benedictine-Springfield, in its final season of play, scored a big upset on Tuesday night over Lindenwood-Belleville (Ill.) and will attempt to pull a second straight upset over FHU.

LAST TIME THEY MET
A 15-0 first-half run gave the Lions a 14-point lead, and that lead only dipped below 10 two more times as FHU picked up an 80-65 win over the Bulldogs on Jan. 1 in Henderson. The Lions led by as many as 23 in the second half. Cameron Lewis and Ben Meis both scored 22 points and Evan Forhetz dished out 13 assists.

INSIDE THE SERIES
Freed-Hardeman leads the all-time series, 4-0, with all games having been played since the start of last season. With Benedictine-Springfield shutting down at the end of the academic year, this will be the final regular-season contest between the two schools.

LOW POST PRESENCE
Since rejoining the team in early January, 6-foot-8 junior Isaiah Harrison has given the Lions an extra scoring option in the post as well as rebounding support. Harrison enters tonight's game averaging 10.2 points and 8.0 rebounds per game while shooting 58.0 percent from the field. He's coming off a season-high 18 points on Saturday.

LEADING THE NATION
Evan Forhetz has seen his assist average slip a little bit but he still leads the NAIA with 7.0 assists per game entering tonight's game. He's also first in total assists (160) and fourth in assist-to-turnover ratio (3.2).

SWAT TEAM
The Lions remain among the top teams in the NAIA in blocked shots, averaging 4.2 blocks per game - good for 11th in the nation. Vincent Dotson ranks 25th in blocks (1.4 per game) while Joseph Williams and Isaiah Harrison each average 1.0 blocks per game.

IN CONTROL
Freed-Hardeman holds a 2.5-game lead in the AMC standings with five games left to play. Columbia (Mo.) sits in second place, with an extra game remaining. FHU is four games clear of Williams Baptist (Ark.) in third place. The Lions also hold the tiebreaker over Columbia, which means FHU could lose two of its last five and still have home-court advantage through the conference tournament.

SCOUTING THE BULLDOGS
Benedictine-Springfield (11-13, 8-9) is part of a tightly-bunched middle portion of the conference. The Bulldogs enter today's game in seventh place, 1.5 games behind Park (Mo.) for sixth. They play a low-scoring style, averaging 66.7 points per game while allowing 69.8 and holding opponents to 42.0 percent shooting. Clavonte Brown (10.7 ppg) and Thomas Dillard (10.3 ppg) lead the team in scoring. BenU is susceptible with its 3-point defense as opponents are shooting 36.4 percent from behind the arc, which could bode well for an FHU squad that shoots over 39 percent from 3-point range.