The Murray State Racers and the Illinois State Redbirds meet in college basketball action from Redbird Arena on Tuesday night.
The Murray State Racers will hope to build on a 78-59 win over Bellarmine last time out. Tevin Brown leads the Racers in scoring with 25 PPG as well as 6.5 RPG and 4 APG while KJ Williams has 21 PPG with 6 RPG and Justice Hill has 11 PPG with at eam-high 6 APG this season. Trae Hannibal also has 10 PPG with 6 RPG to cap off the group of double-digit scorers for Murray State up to this point in the season. As a team, Murray State is averaging 93.5 PPG on 57.9% shooting from the field, 41.2% from three and 65.4% from the foul line while allowing 68 PPG on 41.5% shooting from the field and 38.3% from three this season.
The Illinois State Redbirds will be out to bounce back from a 103-98 loss to Eastern Michigan in overtime in their last game. Antonio Reeves leads the Redbirds in scoring with 30.5 PPG with 3.5 RPG while Sy Chatman has 19 PPG with a team-high 11.5 RPG, averaging a double-double per contest while leading the Redbirds on the glass. Josiah Strong has 10 PPG with 4 RPG to cap off the trio of double-digit scorers for the Redbirds so far this season while Mark Freeman has 9 PPG with 3.5 RPG and a team-high 2.5 APG this season. As a team, Illinois State is averaging 83 PPG on 38.8% shooting from the field, 32.1% from three and 75% from the foul line while allowing 63 PPG on 39.1% shooting from the field and 31% from three this season.
Murray State is 4-9 ATS in their last 13 road games and 4-10 ATS in their last 14 games as a road favorite while the over is 4-1 in their last 5 games following an ATS win. Illinois State is 11-23-2 ATS in their last 36 games as an underdog and 1-5-1 ATS in their last 7 home games while the under is 7-1 in their last 8 home games.
I get why the Racers being favored makes sense, but I’m not so fast to jump on Murray State. This Racers tea is a bit of a step down from the last couple of seasons in my eyes and I’m just not sold on this team as of yet. The Redbirds were bad last year, but the pieces on this year’s team have performed well early on and I think they’ll give the Redbirds a chance to keep this one close at the very least. Give me Illinois State and the points here.