The Utah Tech Trailblazers and the Arizona Wildcats meet Thursday in college basketball action from McKale Center. Utah Tech is 1-2 on the year so far and fresh off a loss to Washington. As for Arizona, they’re 2-0 after a pair of games. The Wildcats beat Southern U in their last outing. Check back all season long for free college basketball picks at Sports Chat Place.
Utah Tech matched up against Nevada in their first game of the 2022-23 campaign. The Trailblazers lost that one 84-71. In game two versus Cal State Northridge however, Utah Tech managed a 69-63 victory to pull to .500 on the year.
Back on Monday versus Washington, Utah Tech had another tricky matchup. The Trailblazers were up 36-34 by halftime, but a 44-31 second-half deficit left them with a 78-67 defeat. Tops in scoring was Tanner Christensen with 26 points.
Over on the Arizona side, their year began with a game versus Nicholls State. The Wildcats jumped out to a 59-37 halftime lead and scored 58 more points on the way to a 117-75 victory. Azuolas Tubelis led the team on 23 points, seven boards and six assists.
In game two against Southern U back on Friday, the Wildcats were up 49-31 by halftime. Arizona was outscored 47-46 from there in an eventual 95-78 win. Tubelis, Oumar Ballo and Pelle Larsson scored 17 apiece, and Kerr Kriisa tripled up on 14 points, 12 assists and 11 boards.
PICK: I’m going to stick with Arizona. Probably not touching it, though. The Wildcats have been pretty solid through two games so far, and they’re taking care of business. Arizona shot a nice 54.5 percent from the field with 51 rebounds and 24 assists in their win over Southern U. The 3-point shooting (5-of-20) wasn’t great, though. As for Utah Tech, they’ve been pretty inconsistent so far. If the Trailblazers don’t play perfect basketball in this one I don’t think they’ll cover.