The Southern Indiana Screaming Eagles and the Eastern Illinois Panthers meet Saturday in college basketball action from Lantz Arena. The Eagles played Southeast Missouri State on Thursday. In that one Southern Indiana powered out a five-point victory. As for Eastern Illinois, they’re fresh off a Thursday matchup versus Lindenwood. The Panthers ended up getting by with a one-point win. Check back all season long for free college basketball picks at Sports Chat Place.
Southern Indiana hit a 3-3 stretch out of the gate this year, losing to Missouri, Notre Dame and St. Bonaventure. The Eagles went 4-3 over their next four outings with wins over Anderson IN, Indiana State, SMWC and IUPUI.
On Thursday versus Southeast Missouri State, Southern Indiana jumped out to a 43-26 lead going into the second half. The Eagles had to scramble from there but got the 86-81 win. Jacob Polakovich went off for 27 points, 26 rebounds and five assists.
Over on the Eastern Illinois side, they were just 1-5 after six games this year with a lone win over SMWC. The Panthers went 3-4 over their next seven, losing to Alabama State, Northern Illinois, Ball State and Western Illinois.
Matched up against Lindenwood on Thursday, the Panthers posted a 32-28 edge at the break. Eastern Illinois was outscored 26-23 in the second half but held on for the 55-54 win. Kinyon Hodges led the team on 15 points with three rebounds.
PICK: I’ll probably take a stab on Southern Indiana. The Eagles have played well over their last six games, going 5-1 with 78 or more points in all five victories. All things considered, Southern Indiana has done a good job in comparable matchups this year. As for Eastern Illinois, they’ve scored 70 or more in five of their last seven games and should notch a decent total in this one. I like this game to be a reasonably high-scoring one, with Southern Indiana eking out a cover.