The Fresno State Bulldogs and the Coastal Carolina Chanticleers meet in college basketball action in the Basketball Classic’s championship game on Thursday night.
The Fresno State Bulldogs will look to build on a 67-48 win over Southern Utah last time out. Orlando Robinson led the charge for the Bulldogs in scoring with 20 points on 9 of 15 shooting with a team-high 7 rebounds and 3 steals while Jordan Campbell had 11 points on 4 of 8 shooting with 3 threes as the only other double-digit scorer for Fresno State up to this point in the season. Isaiah Hill had 8 points with a pair of threes and a team-high 7 assists while Braxton Meah had 7 rebounds of his own and Donavan Yap had 3 steals of his own as well in the win.
The Coastal Carolina Chanticleers punched their ticket to the TBC title game after a 69-68 OT win over South Alabama in their last game. Rudi Williams led the Chanticleers in scoring with 17 points on 8 of 10 shooting and 3 steals while Vince Cole had 16 points with 4 threes and Essam Mostafa had 12 points with 7 rebounds and a team-high 4 assists to cap off the trio of double-digit scorers for Coastal Carolina in the win. Ebrima Dibba also added 8 points with a team-high 10 rebounds and 3 assists as well.
Fresno State is 3-0-1 ATS in their last 4 games as a road favorite and 1-4 ATS in their last 5 games overall while the over is 4-1 in their last 5 games as a favorite. Coastal Carolina is 6-1 ATS in their last 7 games overall and 4-0 ATS in their last 4 games against a team with a winning record while the over is 5-1 in their last 6 home games.
I get the case to be made either way here, but as well as Fresno state’s played in this tournament, all of their games have been at home. On the road this season, the Bulldogs scored just 63.2 PPG. Coastal Carolina has had blips offensively, but they normally score pretty well at home. If this game was on a neutral floor, I’d be more inclined to side with Fresno State, but in their home arena, give me the Chanticleers and the free bucket.