The Valparaiso Beacons and the Illinois Fighting Illini meet in college basketball action from the State Farm Center on Friday night.

Valparaiso Takes Out Green Bay

The Valparaiso Beacons come into this one fresh off of a 64-59 win over Green Bay in their last matchup. Isaiah Stafford leads the Beacons in scoring with 16.7 PPG while Jaxon Edwards has 15.7 PPG with 5.3 RPG as the only other double-digit scorer for Valparaiso up to this point in the season. Cooper Schweiger has 9.7 PPG with 5.3 RPG while Jerome Palm has 8 PPG and a team-high 8.3 RPG to lead the Beacons on the glass and Darius DeAveiro has a team-high 5 APG as well on the year. As a team, Valparaiso is averaging 73.3 PPG on 28.9% shooting from the field, 29.9% from three and 70.3% from the foul line this season.

Illinois Falls To Marquette

The Illinois Fighting Illini will be out for blood after their first loss of the season following a 71-64 loss to Marquette last time out. Terrence Shannon Jr. leads the Illini in scoring with 17.3 PPG along with 2.7 APG while Marcus Domask has 10.3 PPG with 3.3 RPG as the only other double-digit scorer for Illinois up to this point in the year. Quincy Guerrier leads the Fighting Illini on the glass with 7 RPG this season while Coleman Hawkins has chipped in a team-leading 3.3 APG to lead Illinois in the assist department this season. As a team, Illinois is averaging 69.3 PPG on 43.9% shooting from the field, 30.9% from three and 59.6% from the foul line this season.

Chris’ Pick

I’m rolling with Illinois here. Valparaiso’s had one of the worst schedules that features D-I opposition of any team out there this season and going from that to what Illinois is going to throw at you is a completely different animal. The Illini have a history of beating up on these lesser teams and I didn’t really have high hopes for Valpo in this matchup to begin with. Give me the Illini in a rout.