The Southern Illinois Salukis and the Illinois State Redbirds meet in college basketball action from Redbird Arena on Saturday night.
The Southern Illinois Salukis will look to rebound from a 69-54 loss to Missouri State last time out. Marcus Domask leads the Salukis in scoring, rebounding and assists with 14.5 PPG, 5.2 RPG and 4 APG while Lance Jones has 14.1 PPG with 3.9 RPG and Ben Coupet Jr. has 10.2 PPG with 4.3 RPG to round out the group of double-digit scorers for Southern Illinois so far this season. As a team, Southern Illinois is averaging 63.2 PPG on 43.9% shooting from the field, 34.6% from three and 68.2% from the foul line while allowing 60.6 PPG on 44% shooting from the field and 30.6% from three this season.
The Illinois State Redbirds will try to snap a four-game losing skid after a 78-64 loss to Loyola-Chicago last time out. Antonio Reeves leads the Redbirds in scoring with 20.1 PPG along with 3.7 RPG while Sy Chatman has 13.6 PPG and a team-high 6 RPG to lead Illinois State on the glass. Josiah Strong has 12 PPG to make up the trio of double-digit scorers for Illinois State up to this point in the season while Kendall Lewis has 9.6 PPG with 5.3 RPG and Mark Freeman has 9.2 PPG with a team-high 3.9 APG to lead the Redbirds in the assist category. As a team, Illinois State is averaging 77.4 PPG on 46% shooting from the field, 36.9% from three and 73.3% from the foul line while allowing 76.8 PPG on 44.2% shooting from the field and 35.7% from three this season.
Southern Illinois is 1-5 ATS in their last 6 games against a team with a losing record and 12-3-1 ATS in their last 16 games following a loss while the under is 6-0 in their last 6 games against a team with a losing record. Illinois State is 5-0 ATS in their last 5 home games and 6-1 ATS in their last 7 games following a loss while the over is 14-6 in their last 20 games overall.
Neither of these teams are playing all that well right now so I’m not rushing to the window to bet this one, but I’m leaning towards Illinois State here for a couple of reasons. For one, they’re at home where they’re 9-3 SU and in a pick ‘em spot, it doesn’t take a genius to see what that means and second, the Redbirds have just been the more trustworthy offensive team in my opinion for much of the season. The home court is the bigger edge for me here though so I’ll lean the way of Illinois State.