Western Illinois vs North Dakota State 2/10/22 College Basketball Picks, Predictions, Odds

The North Dakota State Bison and the Western Illinois Leathernecks meet in college basketball action from Western Hall on Thursday night.

The North Dakota State Bison will look to build on their three-game winning streak after a 76-74 win over South Dakota last time out. Rocky Kreuser leads the Bison in scoring with 16.6 PPG as well as in rebounding with 8 RPG while Grant Nelson has 11.8 PPG with 4.7 RPG. Sam Griesel also has 11.8 PPG with 6.4 RPG and 2.9 APG and Tyree Eady has 10 PPG with 2.7 APG to make up the group of double-digit scorers for North Dakota State so far this season. As a team, North Dakota State is averaging 73.6 PPG on 45% shooting from the field, 35.3% from three and 75.7% from the foul line while allowing 68.6 PPG on 42.3% shooting from the field and 31.4% from three this season.

The Western Illinois Leathernecks will try to find some consistency after alternating wins and losses in each of their last five games after a 91-82 loss on the road at Kansas City last time out. Trenton Massner leads the Leathernecks in scoring and assists with 16.8 PPG and 4.1 APG while Will CArius has 15.7 PPG and Luka Barisic has 14.3 PPG with 5.8 RPG this season. Colton Sandage has 13.6 PPG with 3.9 RPG and 2.6 APG to make up the group of double-digit scorers for WIU this season while Tamell Pearson has 9.8 PPG with a team-hgih 6.5 RPG this season. As a team, Western Illinois is averaging 80.2 PPG on 44.3% shooting from the field, 34% from three and 70.4% from the foul line while allowing 76.3 PPG on 45.8% shooting from the field and 36.8% from three this season.

North Dakota State is 2-8-1 ATS in their last 11 games following an ATS loss and 0-7 ATS in their last 7 road games following three or more consecutive home games while the over is 4-1 in their last 5 road games following three or more consecutive home games. Western Illinois is 2-10 ATS in their last 12 Thursday games and 2-8-1 ATS in their last 11 games after allowing 90 points or more in their previous game while the over is 6-1 in their last 7 games against a team with a winning record.

I get the case you could make for either side here, but rather than side with a team in a true coin flip, I’m going to back the over here. These are two teams that can flat out score and while Western Illinois has been terrible defensively, the Bison haven’t been dominant defensively either and I think this is a game that ends up in the mid-150s at the very least. Give me the over.