Eastern Kentucky vs Cleveland State Pick – Basketball Predictions & Odds 3/19/23

The Cleveland State Vikings and the Eastern Kentucky Colonels meet in college basketball action from the Ocean Center on Sunday as part of the CBI Tournament.

Cleveland State Vikings Team Preview

The Cleveland State Vikings come into the tournament as the 9-seed out of the Horizon League after going 21-13 overall including a 14-6 mark in Horizon League conference play. As the 3-seed at the conference tournament, Cleveland State ousted Robert Morris and Milwaukee before falling to Northern Kentucky in the conference championship game. Tristan Enaruna led the Vikings in scoring and rebounding with 15.7 PPG and 6.6 RPG while Tae Williams has 11 PPG with 6 RPG as the only other double-digit scorer for Cleveland State so far this season. Deshon Parker has 9.9 PPG with a team-high 4.1 APG to lead the Vikings in assists while Drew Lowder has 9.8 PPG this season. As a team, Cleveland State is averaging 71.7 PPG on 45.5% shooting from the field, 31% from three and 67.9% from the foul line this season.

Eastern Kentucky Colonels Team Preview

The Eastern Kentucky Colonels come in as the 8-seed out of the ASUN Conference after going 20-13 overall including 12-6 in ASUN conference play to finish with the 3-seed. As the 3-seed, Eastern Kentucky took out North Alabama before falling to Liberty in the tournament semifinals. Devontae Blanton leads the Colonels in scoring with 16.6 PPG along with 6.4 RPG and 2.9 APG while Michael Moreno has 11.5 PPG with 6.5 RPG as the only other double-digit scorer for EKU up to this point in the season. Isaiah Cozart also has a team-high 7.1 RPG to lead the Colonels on the glass while Tayshawn Comer has a team-high 3.6 APG to lead the Colonels in the assist department this season. As a team, Eastern Kentucky is averaging 77.4 PPG on 43.5% shooting from the field, 33.7% from three and 65.8% from the foul line this season.

Trends

Eastern Kentucky is 9-1 ATS in their last 10 games against a team with a winning percentage above .600 and 1-6 ATS in their last 7 Sunday games while the under is 10-1 in their last 11 neutral site games. Cleveland State is 7-2 ATS in their last 9 games overall and 9-3 ATS in their last 12 neutral site games while the over is 6-0-1 in their last 7 games against a team with a winning percentage above .600.

Pick

I like the over here. Both teams don’t have the greatest shooting numbers, but both hit the offensive glass extremely hard and don’t really turn the ball over. I think there’s going to be a lot of second chance points in this game and in the end I think we get to the 150s here. Give me the over.