The Liberty Flames and the Eastern Kentucky Colonels meet Sunday in college basketball action from EKU Alumni Coliseum. Liberty is currently sitting at 12-4 overall. The Flames beat Jacksonville State in their last matchup. As for Eastern Kentucky, they’re 9-7 this season following a win over Central Arkansas on Thursday. Check back all season long for free college basketball picks at Sports Chat Place.
Liberty went 6-4 over their first 10 games this year, losing to Alabama, Southern Miss, Northwestern and Oral Roberts. The Flames are 6-0 since then with wins over Bryant, Grambling State, MACU, Bellarmine, Lipscomb and JSU.
In the Jacksonville State matchup on Thursday, the Flames took a dominant 38-13 edge into the break. Liberty kept it up on a 37-28 run and won in blowout fashion 75-41. Darius McGhee led the way on 22 points with seven assists.
Over on the Eastern Kentucky side, they were 5-5 through 10 games this year with losses to Western Kentucky, Cincinnati, Texas A&M-Commerce, JMU and Tennessee. The Colonels are 4-2 in their last six with losses to Northern Kentucky and Queens NC.
On Thursday versus Central Arkansas, Eastern Kentucky was up 49-32 by the break. The Colonels were outscored 43-28 from there but still won 77-75. Devontae Blanton led the team with his 22 points and eight rebounds.
PICK: I’m going to stay with Liberty. The Flames are on a nice 6-0 run right now and coming off an absolute dismantling of Jacksonville State. Liberty has hit 70 or more points in each game during this win streak and should put up a pretty nice total here as well. As for Eastern Kentucky, they’ve hit 67 or more points in five straight games, going 4-1 in that time. If the Colonels play well here I think they’ll be competitive but this seems Liberty’s cover to take.