Southern Indiana vs Western Illinois Prediction Basketball Picks 1-25-24

The Western Illinois Leathernecks and the Southern Indiana Screaming Eagles meet Thursday in college basketball action from Screaming Eagles Arena. Western Illinois is fresh off a loss to Tennessee State that halted a lengthy win streak and dropped the Leathernecks to 12-7 this year. As for Southern Indiana, they’re 5-15 so far and coming off a loss to Morehead State. Let’s get into our Western Illinois vs. Southern Indiana prediction. Check back all season long for free college basketball picks at Sports Chat Place.

Western Illinois Leathernecks

The Leathernecks stumbled to a 3-6 start this year with wins over only St. Ambrose, Southern and Hannibal-Lagrange. Western Illinois would then beat Coe, Green Bay, Eureka, Central Arkansas, SIU Edwardsville, Southeast Missouri State, Lindenwood, TN-Martin and Eastern Illinois in the next nine outings.

Back on Saturday versus Tennessee State, Western Illinois saw their win streak come to an end. The Leathernecks were up 28-21 going into the second half, then got outscored 37-29 from there in a tough 58-57 outcome. Ryan Myers was the top scorer on 16 points and three boards.

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Southern Indiana Screaming Eagles

Over on the Southern Indiana side, they’ve only been able to beat East-West, St. Francis IL, Lindenwood, Tiffin and Tennessee State this year. The Eagles have lost to Tennessee Tech, SIU Edwardsville, Little Rock and Morehead State in their last quartet of outings.

Matched up against Morehead State on Saturday, the Eagles were drilled 42-28 in the first half. Southern Indiana got better from there on a 42-39 second-half run but still lost 81-70. Jeremiah Hernandez topped the team on his 30 points, five rebounds and one steal.

ANDREW’S FREE WESTERN ILLINOIS VS SOUTHERN INDIANA PREDICTION

I’ll probably stay with Western Illinois. Probably also not touching this one, though. The Leathernecks didn’t play all that well versus Tennessee State in their last game. Western Illinois had a 40-31 rebounding edge, but also shot just 38.2 percent from the field and missed seven of their 16 free-throw attempts (56.3 percent). That makes fewer than 69 points in four of the last five games, but the Leathernecks should match up reasonably well on Thursday.

As for the Eagles, they’ve hit 145 combined points in their last pair but they’ve given up 73 or more points in three of the last four. I could see Southern Indiana being pesky and hanging around in this one, but ultimately I think Western Illinois will pull off the cover if they play to their capabilities.