The Western Carolina Catamounts and the East Tennessee State Buccaneers meet Wednesday in college basketball action from Freedom Hall Civic Center. Western Carolina is currently 8-7 overall and coming off a win versus Furman. As for East Tennessee State, they’re sitting at 6-9 this year. The Buccaneers beat VMI on Saturday. Check back all season long for free college basketball picks at Sports Chat Place.
Western Carolina went 4-6 over their first 10 games this year, beating Brescia, McNeese State, Lamar and Lindenwood. The Catamounts are 4-1 since then with wins over Brevard, Tennessee Tech, Toccoa Falls and Furman.
Matched up against Furman on Saturday, the Catamounts were down 41-38 at halftime. Western Carolina hit a 41-26 run in the second for the 79-67 comeback win. Leading scorer Tre Jackson put up 17 points with three rebounds.
Over on the East Tennessee State side, they were 4-6 after 10 games as well with wins over Emory & Henry, Elon, Little Rock and Mars Hill. The Bucs are 2-3 in their last five games with wins over Wofford and VMI.
In the Saturday matchup versus VMI, East Tennessee State went into the locker room with a 33-25 advantage. The Buccaneers hit a 31-25 run in the second for a 64-50 win. Jalen Haynes was tops on 15 points with eight boards.
PICK: I’m going to stay with Western Carolina. The Catamounts got into some first-half trouble against a good Furman team in their last outing, but to their credit Western Carolina posted the comeback win. It was a nice bounce-back from a flat performance versus UNCG, and the Catamounts have now scored 75 or more in four of the last five games. As for East Tennessee State, they’ve scored fairly well lately and have now won consecutive games. If Western Carolina can get off to a good start I think they’ll be okay cover-wise, though.