The Southern Illinois Salukis and the Indiana State Sycamores meet Wednesday in college basketball action from Hulman Center. Southern Illinois is 12-5 overall this year. The Salukis lost to Northern Iowa in their last game. As for Indiana State, they’re 13-4 following a win over UIC on Saturday. Check back all season long for free college basketball picks at Sports Chat Place.
Southern Illinois posted a 6-4 run through 10 games this year, losing to Southern Indiana, UNLV, Saint Louis and Indiana State in that time. The Salukis are 6-1 since then with wins over Lincoln MO, Chicago State, SEMO, Murray State, Belmont and Drake.
On Saturday versus Northern Iowa, the Salukis were down 35-29 at the break. Southern Illinois was outscored 34-28 from there and lost 69-57. Lance Jones was the only double-digit team scorer on 17 points.
Over on the Indiana State side, they went a nice 9-1 through their first 10 games, losing to only UMKC on November 22. Indiana State has since gone 4-3 with wins over Evansville, Valparaiso, Illinois State and UIC.
In the UIC game on Saturday, the Sycamores drilled the flames 42-28 in the first half. Indiana State posted a 38-32 run in the second half for an 80-60 win. Julian Larry posted 18 points and Courvoisier McCauley doubled on 17 points and 11 boards.
PICK: I’ll probably stick with Indiana State. This one could get interesting, though. The last tie these teams met up was back on December 7. The Sycamores eked out a hard-fought 74-71 road win in that one despite a 43-35 second-half deficit. The good news is that Indiana State is on a nice 4-0 run with 68 or more points scored in each game and they’ll be back at Hulman Center on Wednesday. I like Southern Illinois to hang around for most of the game with the Sycamores powering out an eventual home cover/win. Should be a fun one.