The Fort Wayne Mastodons and the Cleveland State Vikings meet Thursday in college basketball action from Wolstein Center. Fort Wayne sits at 5-5 so far this year. The Mastodons are coming off a win over Southeast Missouri State. As for Cleveland State, they’re 6-3 and fresh off a loss to Oklahoma State. This is a rescheduled matchup due to roster issues with UIC and IUPUI. Check back all season long for free college basketball picks at Sports Chat Place.
Fort Wayne started off at 3-1 this year, then hit a three-game losing streak. The Mastodons would recover with a win over Northern Kentucky, then lose to SIU Edwardsville. In their last game, Fort Wayne managed a victory versus Southeast Missouri State.
In the Southeast Missouri State matchup, the Mastodons had a 36-30 lead at the break, then scored 42 more points from there in a 78-65 win. Leading the way was Jalon Pipkins with 24 points, and Jarred Godfrey added 16 points of his own.
Over on the Cleveland State side, they lost their first pair of games this year before taking out Edinboro, Canisius, Coppin State, Penn State-Behrend, Northern KY and Wright State in succession. The streak was then stopped with a loss to Oklahoma State.
In the December 13 matchup versus OK State, the Vikings stayed tight the whole way and forced overtime. Cleveland State was outscored 14-9 in the extra period for a tough 98-93 loss. D’Moi Hodge led the team with 31 points and three boards.
Cleveland State is 13-5-1 ATS in their last 19 at home and 4-1 ATS in their last five overall. The Vikings are 4-1 ATS in their last five Thursday games.
Meanwhile, the Mastodons are 1-4 ATS in their last five after an ATS win and the under is 20-8 in their last 28 after a straight-up win. Fort Wayne is 4-1 ATS in their last five as an underdog.
PICK: I’m going to stay with Cleveland State. The Vikings put up a valiant effort against a pretty good Oklahoma State team in their last outing, shooting 50.7 percent from the floor with 39 rebounds and 23 assists. Cleveland State has hit 72 or more points in each of the last four games.
As for Fort Wayne, they’ve had their ups and downs this year but have generally scored pretty well lately. This should be a fairly high-scoring matchup, and I like Cleveland State to bag the cover.