The Lindenwood Lions and the Utah Tech Trailblazers meet in college basketball action from the Burns Arena on Thursday.
The Lindenwood Lions will look to bounce back from an 80-61 loss to BYU last time out. Chris Childs leads the Lions in scoring with 14.6 PPG along with 5 RPG and 2.6 APG while Kevin Caldwell Jr. has 13.8 PPG with a team-high 4.1 APG to lead the Lions in the assist department this season. Keenon Cole has 10.4 PPG with 3.7 RPG and Cam Burrell has 11.2 PPG with 5.9 RPG to cap off the group of double-digit scorers for Lindenwood so far this season. David Ware also has a team-high 6.2 RPG to lead the Lions on the glass up to this point in the year. As a team, Lindenwood is averaging 70.4 PPG on 42.3% shooting from the field, 32.7% from three and 70% from the foul line this season.
The Utah Tech Trailblazers will hope to build on an 80-53 win over Westmont in their last game. Cameron Gooden has 16.5 PPG with 3 RPG and a team-high 3.4 APG to lead the Trailblazers in the assist department this season. Isaiah Pope has 10.7 PPG and Tanner Christensen has 10.1 PPG to cap off the trio of double-digit scorers for Utah Tech so far this season with Christensen logging a team-high 7.3 RPG to lead the Trailblazers on the glass so far this season. As a team, Utah Tech is averaging 76.7 PPG on 45.6% shooting from the field, 36.5% from three and 69.7% from the foul line this season.
Lindenwood is 1-4 ATS in their last 5 games against a team with a winning record while the over is 4-1 in their last 5 games overall. Utah Tech is 7-1 ATS in their last 8 games overall and 7-2 ATS in their last 9 home games while the under is 4-0 in their last 4 home games.
I get the case to be made for either side in this game, but I’m leaning towards Utah Tech here. Lindenwood has done well against subdivision opponents, but put them against D-I opposition, and everything comes to a screeching halt. Utah Tech’s sort of in the same boat, but at least they’ve picked up decent wins over D-I opponents here and there. It’s the lesser of two evils here, so I’ll lean towards Utah Tech in this one.