The South Dakota Coyotes and Western Illinois Leathernecks meet Friday in college basketball action at the LeRoy A. Ufkes Court.

The South Dakota Coyotes look to build on their five-game winning streak. The South Dakota Coyotes are averaging 71.6 points on 44.1 percent shooting and allowing 67.7 points on 40.7 percent shooting. Stanley Umude is averaging 23.7 points and 7.3 rebounds while AJ Plitzuweit is averaging 13.8 points and 4.2 rebounds. Ty Chisom is dishing 1.3 assists and Xavier Fuller is grabbing 3.5 rebounds. The South Dakota Coyotes are shooting 37.7 percent from beyond the arc and 75 percent from the free thitem line. The South Dakota Coyotes are allowing 31.1 percent shooting from deep and are grabbing 32.1 rebounds per game.

The Western Illinois Leathernecks look to snap a five-game losing streak. The Western Illinois Leathernecks are averaging 69.6 points on 40.2 percent shooting and allowing 78.8 points on 47.5 percent shooting. Tamell Pearson is averaging 12.4 points and 6.9 rebounds while Will Carius is averaging 11 points and 5.5 rebounds. Rod Johnson Jr. is grabbing six rebounds and Justin Brookens is dishing 2.2 assists. The Western Illinois Leathernecks are shooting 29.2 percent from beyond the arc and 65.1 percent from the free thitem line. The Western Illinois Leathernecks are allowing 38.6 percent shooting from deep and are grabbing 34.8 rebounds per game.

The Coyotes are 5-12 ATS in their last 17 road games and 4-0 ATS in their last 4 games overall. The Leathernecks are 0-7-1 ATS in their last 8 home games and 1-4 ATS in their last 5 games overall. The under is 3-1-1 in Coyotes last 5 overall. The over is 4-1 in Leathernecks last 5 overall. The underdog is 4-0 ATS in the last 4 meetings. The road team is 7-1-1 ATS in the last 9 meetings.

The South Dakota Coyotes aren’t covering numbers, but they get after it defensively and have shown during this winning streak that they’re capable of beating up on teams not willing to match their energy. The Western Illinois Leathernecks can’t get out of their own way and that defense seems to get worse by the week. Western Illinois has been taken behind the woodshed a lot this season. I’ll lay the reasonable number with South Dakota.