The UL-Monroe Warhawks and the Arkansas State Red Wolves meet in college basketball action from the Pensacola Bay Center on Thursday evening.
The UL-Monroe Warhawks will enter the conference tournament as the #11 seed, finishing the regular season at 13-17 and 5-13 in conference play this season. Andre Jones leads the Warhawks in scoring with 15.3 PPG along with 3.9 APG while Russell Harrison has 13 PPG with a team-high 5.7 RPG to lead the Warhawks on the glass. Koreem Ozier has 11.3 PPG and Nika Metskhvarishvili and Trey Boston each have 10 PPG to make up the group of double-digit scorers for ULM so far this season. Elijah Gonzales also has a team-high 4.2 APG to lead ULM in assists and Thomas Howell has 8.1 PPG with 4 RPG this season. As a team, UL-Monroe is averaging 72.3 PPG on 45.2% shooting from the field, 33.3% from three and 72.5% from the foul line while allowing 74.1 PPG on 45% shooting from the field and 35.5% from three this season.
The Arkansas State Red Wolves will enter as the #6 seed, finishing the regular season at 17-10 on the year including 8-7 in conference play. Norchad Omier leads the Red Wolves in scoring and rebounding, averaging a double-double per game with 17.2 PPG and 12 RPG while Desi Sills has 12.8 PPG with 3 APG and Marquis Eaton’s got 11.7 PPG with 3.4 APG to cap off the trio of double-digit scorers for A-State this season. Caleb Fields also has 7.4 PPG with a team-high 4.6 APG to lead the Red Wolves in assists this year. As a team, Arkansas State is averaging 70.8 PPG on 45.4% shooting from the field, 31.1% from three and 74.1% from the foul line while allowing 67.9 PPG on 42.7% shooting from the field and 32.9% from three this season.
UL-Monroe is 0-4 ATS in their last 4 neutral site games as an underdog while the over is 4-0 in their last 4 games overall. Arkansas State is 1-6 ATS in their last 7 neutral site games as a favorite and 1-4 ATS in their last 5 games overall while the under is 4-1 in their last 5 games following an ATS loss.
I get why Arkansas State’s favored here, as the Warhawks aren’t a team I’m personally rushing to back. However, ULM has been competitive in recent games and have had more consistent offensive showings than A-State and the Red Wolves just have a tendency to go on scoring droughts that won’t help against a ULM team that can score. I’ll take my chances with the Warhawks and the points here.