The Winthrop Eagles and the Furman Paladins meet Saturday in college basketball action from Timmons Arena. Winthrop enters this one at 5-5 overall. The Eagles beat SC State in their last game. As for Furman, they’re 6-3 overall and fresh off a loss to High Point. Check back all season long for free college basketball picks at Sports Chat Place.
Winthrop went just 2-4 over their first six games this year, falling to Penn State, Auburn, Mercer and Southern Miss. The Eagles hit a 3-1 run in the next four games however, beating Eastern Michigan, Toccoa Falls and SC State.
In the matchup versus SC State on Tuesday, Winthrop was up 38-29 at the break. The Eagles scored another 43 points in the second for an 81-67 win. Kelton Talford led the team on 28 points with nine rebounds.
Over on the Furman side, they went 2-2 over their first four games with wins over North Greenville and Belmont. The Paladins would then take wins over South Carolina, Tusculum, App State and SC State in the next four.
Matched up against High Point on Tuesday, the Paladins trailed 45-41 by halftime. Furman notched 41 points in the second half but couldn’t catch up in an 85-82 loss. Mike Bothwell topped the team with 29 points and seven boards.
PICK: I’ll probably stay with Furman. The Paladins are coming off a tough loss to a good High Point team. Furman played pretty well in that one though, with 45.7 percent from the field. That said, the Paladins also allowed 59.3 percent shooting on the other side and got out-rebounded 34-29. The good news is that this shouldn’t be quite so difficult a matchup for Furman—on paper at least. Winthrop has scored 81 or more points in four straight games though, so this one could be a shootout.