RIVERSIDE - The Jackson State men's basketball team will play their third game in five days when they hit the floor on Friday against Cal Baptist. 

The Tigers started the season on the road in Memphis and, from there, traveled to San Diego to fave USD, and they traveled to Riverside and will face off against Cal Baptist on Friday night at 9 p.m. CST. The game will be broadcast live on ESPN+. 

Cal Baptist won its season opener, defeating San Francisco State 74-57, their ninth home opener, after getting out to a quick first-half start. Dominique Daniels Jr. scored a game-high 22 points in the win. 

Jackson State-Cal Baptist 

• This will be the third meeting between the two teams, with Cal Baptist winning the first two meetings.
• Cal Baptist has had six 20-plus win seasons under head coach Rick Croy, who is in his 11th year at the helm, and this will be the first meeting between Coach Mo and the Lancers. 

Last Time out

• The Jackson State men's basketball team fell 61-87 following a cold shooting second half on the road at the University of San Diego at Jenny Craig Pavilion. 
• Keiveon Hunt led the Tigers with a team-high 18 points and six rebounds as they finished the game with four players scoring in double figures. Jordan O'Neal and Ken Evans Jr. added 12 points, and Coltie Young added 10 for Jackson State. 
• JSU started the game by making seven of their first 12 shots, with five coming from beyond the three-point arc, on their way to an early 22-15 lead over the Toreros. San Diego would claw their way back into the game, but the Tigers would take a 39-35 lead into the half. 
• Jackson State shot 46 percent from the floor in the first frame and made six 3-pointers, but only five of their 13 shots from the charity stripe, despite USD being in early foul trouble. 
• The Toreros (2-0) opened the second half on a 14-5 run, giving them a 49-44 lead over the Tigers. JSU would get a field goal from Hunt at 12:57 to cut San Diego's lead to three points, but that would be the closest the Tigers would get.
• Jackson State would make just three field goals over the next 11:53 until a turnaround jumper by Tamorrian Grigsby with under one minute to play in the game. Over that same time, San Diego would go 7:20, making just one field goal and scoring 16 points at the free-throw line.  
• The Tigers finished the game by shooting 38 percent from the floor and making just 10-of-25 free throws. Hunt led the bench players with 18 points, and JSU scored 20 points in the paint.    
• Dragos Lungu led San Diego with a game-high 20 points, and Wayne McKinney recorded the only double-double of the game with 16 points and ten rebounds. 

Look Who's Back! 

• The Tigers welcomed back all five starters from a year ago: Ken Evans, Coltie Young, Romelle Mansel, Chase Adams,  and Zeke Cook, and they accounted for 1,510 of Jackson State's 2,232 total points a year. 
• Evans led the team in scoring, averaging 11.3 ppg, 4.6 rebounds per game, and 86 assists. 
• Young was the second-leading scorer, with 10.9 points per game and 3.6 rebounds per game. 
• Mansel finished the year with 8.9 points per game, 31 block shots, and an average of 5.4 rebounds. 
• Adams guided the team as the point guard and finished with 118 assists, 50 steals, and 8.0 points per game. 
• Cook averaged 5.9 rebounds per game with 16 blocks and 35 steals. 

2 Dogs 1 Bone

• The Jackson State men's basketball team lives on the 2 Dogs, 1 Bone philosophy. 
• In the words of Coach Mo, "When you have two dogs in a kennel with one bone, the toughest and hungriest dog is going to get that bone."
• The team that works the hardest and puts in the most work will win the battle between the two teams. 
• The Tigers have a championship mindset because they want to be the best team in the SWAC. 

Road warriors 

• The Jackson State Tigers will clock a few miles on the road before the SWAC season begins. They will travel 9,736 miles before they play their first conference game. 
• The travel is designed so the Tigers can grow together as a team on the road and learn how to play when traveling in the SWAC.
• JSU will play three games in five days in two different time zones to start the season.  
• Following those three games, they will play three more games over the next six days, all on the road. 

Big from the Bench

• Coach Mo is looking for a big thing from the bench this year. He added some key players who he is expecting to give key minutes and play well when their time is called. 
• Some of those players include Treyon Johnson, Keiveon Hunt,  and Jalani Bell. 
• The Tigers scored 19 points off the bench in their first game against Memphis.