The UT-Martin Skyhawks and the Eastern Illinois Panthers meet in college basketball action from the Lantz Arena on Saturday afternoon.
The UT-Martin Skyhawks will look to rebound from a 66-53 loss to SIU-Edwardsville last time out. Cameron Holden has 14.3 PPG with a team-high 8.4 RPG while Jaron Williams has 10.3 PPG as the only other double-digit scorer for UT-Martin up to this point in the season. Eden Holt has 9.9 PPG with a team-high 3.4 APG as well for the Skyhawks on the year. As a team, UT-Martin is averaging 65.1 PPG on 39.6% shooting from the field, 33.5% from 3-point range and 71.4% from the foul line while allowing 77.3 PPG on 48.6% shooting from the field and 38% from 3-point land this season.
The Eastern Illinois Panthers will look to bounce back from a 94-88 loss to SE Missouri State last time out. Marvin Johnson leads EIU in scoring and assists with 15.2 PPG and 4.6 APG while also logging 5.4 RPG. Josiah Wallace has 13.6 PPG with 2.9 APG and Mack Smith has 10.8 PPG to make up the group of double-digit scorers for EIU up to this point in the year. Jordan Skipper-Brown has 9.7 PPG with 5.4 RPG and Sammy Friday IV has 9.1 PPG with 4.5 RPG. George Dixon has a team-high 5.8 RPG as well this season. As a team, Eastern Illinois is averaging 69.5 PPG on 43.5% shooting from the field, 33.3% from 3-point range and 65.8% from the foul line while allowing 75 PPG on 45% shooting from the field and 36.6% from 3-point range this season.
UT-Martin is 1-4 ATS in their last 5 games overall and 2-6 ATS in their last 8 Saturday games while the under is 6-0 in their last 6 games against a team with a winning percentage below .400. Eastern Illinois is 1-6 ATS in their last 7 home games and 7-20 ATS in their last 27 games overall while the over is 45-12 in their last 57 home games against a team with a losing road record. The home team is 14-6 ATS in the last 20 meetings between these two teams.
Forgive me, but I’m not comfortable with either side in this matchup, as we’re either taking points with a UT-Martin team that can’t do anything right on the road against an Eastern Illinois bunch thatis 2-9 ATS at home. Instead, I’m going to side with the under as I don’t trust either side enough to hold up their end of the bargain in terms of getting over this number but rest assured, I’m not going anywhere near this game.