MARSHALL, Texas (Interstat) — East Texas Baptist and Southwestern (Tex.) will meet Saturday in a men’s NCAA Division III basketball game at Ornelas Gymnasium, with the Tigers serving as the home team and the Pirates as the visitors.

Both teams enter with 0-0 records. East Texas Baptist most recently dropped an 89-84 decision at Mary Hardin-Baylor on Feb. 27. Southwestern (Tex.) most recently fell 83-70 at Rhodes on Feb. 27. The Tigers and Pirates will both be looking for a stronger start in their first game of the season, and each will try to establish tempo early in a matchup between programs with fresh records and limited current form to evaluate. Neither team has played a game this season, leaving the matchup as an early measuring stick for both programs.

East Texas Baptist’s home schedule includes Lyon, Concordia (Tex.), Covenant and Centenary (La.), while the Tigers are set to travel to Centenary (La.), LeTourneau, Lyon, LaGrange, Huntingdon and La Verne during their early slate. Southwestern (Tex.) is scheduled to host Texas Lutheran, Dallas, Austin, Hendrix, Schreiner and Oglethorpe, and the Pirates will visit McMurry, Hardin-Simmons, Trinity (Tex.) and Maryville (Tenn.) in their opening stretch. Those games will help define each team’s early season, but the first test comes Saturday at Ornelas Gymnasium.

For East Texas Baptist, playing at home offers an early opportunity to set a defensive tone and protect the ball in front of its home crowd. For Southwestern (Tex.), the road game provides a chance to build chemistry and handle pressure away from home before a busy stretch of November and December games. The Pirates will need to manage the Tigers’ home-floor energy, while the Tigers will try to turn their home setting into an advantage. The Pirates will be the visiting team in the first of several road challenges on their schedule, while the Tigers will play the first of a series of home and away contests designed to test their depth.

Both teams will rely on early execution and composure as they work through rotation decisions and adjust to regular-season speed. The matchup gives East Texas Baptist and Southwestern (Tex.) an immediate chance to test their depth and learn how their rosters respond in a competitive setting. The game will be decided on the court, with each team focused on limiting turnovers, controlling rebounds and executing in half-court possessions.

Interstat’s game simulator projects a final score of East Texas Baptist 73, Southwestern (Tex.) 72. Interstat’s ELO system gives the Tigers a 66.6 percent probability to win.