The Austin Peay Governors and the Belmont Bruins meet Thursday in college basketball action from Curb Event Center. Austin Peay is 4-9 this year so far. The Governors lost their last game to Morehead State. As for Belmont, they’re 12-3 and fresh off a win versus TN-Martin. Check back all season long for free college basketball picks at Sports Chat Place.
Austin Peay began the year at 4-3 with wins over UT Southern, Dayton, Howard and Milligan. It’s been a losing streak versus North Florida, South Florida, Vanderbilt, TN-Martin, Southeast Missouri State and Morehead State since then.
In the Morehead State matchup back on Saturday, the Governors were down 38-29 at the break and couldn’t catch up in a 66-55 loss. Elijah Hutchins-Everett led the team on 15 points with seven rebounds in 26 minutes of work.
Over on the Belmont side, they began the year at 5-3 with losses to Ohio, LSU and Dayton. The Bruins have won their last seven over Lipscomb, Samford, Saint Louis, Chattanooga, Bethel IN, SEMO and TN-Martin.
Matched up against TN-Martin on Saturday, the Bruins scored 42 points in the first half and 39 more in the second during an 81-55 win. Nick Muszynski put up 20 points with six rebounds, and Ben Sheppard added 13 points.
The Bruins are 5-1-1 ATS in their last seven at home and 6-0 ATS in their last six overall. The under is 5-1-1 in Belmont’s last seven after an ATS win.
Meanwhile, the Governors are 0-4-1 ATS in their last five road games and 0-6-1 ATS in their last seven overall. Austin Peay is 21-10-2 ATS in their last 33 Thursday games.
PICK: I’m sticking with Belmont. It’s admittedly a very thick line, though. The Bruins are on a nice run over their last seven games, and they’ve hit 76 or more points in six of them. Belmont is a good offensive team this year and shouldn’t have a ton of trouble putting up points here. As for Austin Peay, they’ve been at 62 points or fewer in four of their last five so I don’t see them keeping up for too long.