Iowa State Cyclones (20-5) vs. Houston Cougars (22-3)
February 19, 2024 9:00 pm EDT
The Line: Houston Cougars -9; Over/Under: 131.5
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The Iowa State Cyclones and the Houston Cougars meet Monday in college basketball action from Hofheinz Pavilion. Iowa State is fresh off a win over Texas Tech, moving the Cyclones to 20-5 overall. As for Houston, they’re 22-3 following a win over Texas over the weekend. Let’s get into our Iowa State vs. Houston prediction. Check back all season long for free college basketball picks at Sports Chat Place.
Iowa State Cyclones
The Cyclones only took five losses over their first 21 games. Those defeats came to Virginia Tech, Texas A&M, Oklahoma, BYU and Baylor. Since then Iowa State has won four straight games, taking out Texas, TCU, Cincinnati and Texas State in that quartet.
Back on Saturday versus Texas Tech, the Cyclones jumped out to a 38-24 edge by halftime. Iowa State hit a 50-44 deficit in the second but held on for the win 82-74. Leading team scorer Keshon Gilbert put up 24 points with eight rebounds and five assists in the victory.
Houston Cougars
Over on the Cougars’ side, it’s been a pretty great run so far. They lost to only Iowa State and TCU in their first 21 games of the season. Houston would fall to Kansas to start out February but then bounced back in wins over Oklahoma State, Cincinnati and Texas in the next three.
In their matchup versus Texas on Saturday, the Cougars held a comfortable 40-27 edge by the break. Houston kept it up in the second with a 42-34 run and powered out the win 82-61. LJ Cryer was the team’s top scorer with 26 points, while Jamal Shead put up 16 points with 11 rebounds.
ANDREW’S FREE IOWA STATE VS HOUSTON PREDICTION
I’m going to lean toward Houston, but you could call this one either way; it’ll be a good matchup. The Cougars put away a decent Texas team pretty easily in their last outing, shooting 46.8 percent from the field with a 45-34 rebounding edge. Houston has now scored 74 or more points in five of the last seven games.
In their last meeting back on January 9, Houston took a 57-53 road loss to Iowa State. The Cyclones held the rebounding edge 32-25, but also had 16 turnovers that led to 17 Cougars points. Neither team shot very well (both below 38.4 percent) so we could see another defense-heavy matchup here. In the end I like Houston to power out the home cover for some revenge, but it’s a coin flip.
