TAHLEQUAH – The RiverHawks will make their fifth trip to Central Missouri Thursday evening in continued Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association (MIAA) play. 

Thursday's meeting is a rematch of last March's MIAA Tournament opening around where the RiverHawks eliminated the Mules, 60-49, in Kansas City.  Northeastern State (8-5, 5-4 MIAA) is coming off a 64-56 home win over Newman.  Rashad Perkins paced NSU with 18 points in the victory. 

Central Missouri (7-8, 3-6 MIAA) dropped both its games last weekend, falling at Washburn and Emporia State.  The Mules are first in the MIAA in forcing 17 turnovers per game but second to last in field goal percentage (42.8%).  At home, UCM is 6-7 this season and has won two of five MIAA home events. 

The RiverHawks and Mules are the only MIAA teams to play with the same starting lineup this season. 

The RiverHawks are fifth nationally and lead the MIAA in three-point percentage (42.3%) and 15th in NCAA-DII with 17.5 assists per game.  Christian Cook is fourth in the MIAA in scoring with 16.9 points per game and has landed 802 points in 64 games.   Dillon Bailey has scored at least ten points in the last six games and is 11th in the MIAA, averaging 14.5 points per game.  He needs nine to reach 500 career points.  Rashad Perkins has averaged 14 points per game in the last four games while shooting 55 percent from the field.  As a team, the RiverHawks are shooting 51.0 percent as a group which is second-best in the MIAA.

Central Missouri leads the overall series 7-5 over the RiverHawks and has won all four meetings in Warrensburg.  Northeastern State has taken three of the last five meetings over the Mules.

Tip-off is slated for 7:30 p.m. fans can watch the game online on The MIAA Network at TheMIAANetwork.com/nsugoriverhawks.