Portland vs North Dakota 12/3/22 College Basketball Picks, Predictions, Odds

The North Dakota Fighting Hawks and the Portland Pilots meet Saturday in college basketball action from Chiles Center. North Dakota is 5-4 overall this year. The Hawks lost to Iowa State in their last game. As for Portland, they’re 6-4 this season and fresh off a win over Multnomah. Check back all season long for free college basketball picks at Sports Chat Place.

North Dakota hit a 2-2 run out of the gate this year with wins over Incarnate Word and Elon. The Fighting Hawks were 3-1 over their next four with victories against Wisconsin-Stout, Utah Tech and CSU Fullerton. 

On Wednesday versus Iowa State, North Dakota’s win streak was snapped. The Hawks were within two points at halftime but then hit a 37-20 second half for a 63-44 loss. Matt Norman was the top team scorer with nine points. 

Over on the Portland side, they started the year at 4-1 with wins over Lewis & Clark, Florida A&M, Portland State and Air Force. Since then it’s been a 2-3 run with losses to North Carolina, Seattle and Michigan State. 

On Wednesday versus Multnomah, Portland took a 41-34 edge into the break. The Pilots scored 59 points in the second half for a 100-79 win. Wyatt Lowell scored 20 points, and Tyler Robertson tripled up on 12 points, 12 assists and 10 boards. 

PICK: I’m going to stay with North Dakota. We should have a pretty good matchup here, though. The Fighting Hawks were able to hang around with a great Iowa State team pretty well in the first half of their last game, however the Cyclones had a much better second half. North Dakota has performed reasonably well in comparable matchups this year. They’re going to have to hit the offensive gas pedal hard in this one, though. Portland has hit 68 or more points in five straight games and should put up a nice total here as well. I do like North Dakota to stay in cover range, though.