The Loyola Ramblers and the Missouri State Bears meet Monday in college basketball action from JQH Arena.
Loyola comes in here at 14-3 on the year. As for Missouri State, they’re sitting at 9-4 so far. This will be a rematch of Sunday’s game featuring these teams. In that one, Loyola cruised to a 26-point victory. Check back all season long for free college basketball picks at Sports Chat Place.
Loyola started out their year on a nice 7-2 run with losses to Wisconsin and Richmond. After a loss to Indiana State, the Ramblers won their next six over Indiana State, Northern Iowa, Valparaiso and Bradley to move to a nice 13-3 heading into the weekend.
In Sunday’s matchup against the Bears, Loyola drilled the scoreboard in the first half, jumping out to a ridiculous 41-16 advantage at the break on the way to a 72-46 win. Leading the scoring for the Ramblers was Cameron Krutwig on 18 points, five assists and eight rebounds.
Over on the Missouri State side, their year began on a nice run at 9-1 with wins over William Jewell, Northwestern State, Little Rock, Northern Iowa, Indiana State, Valparaiso and Missouri S&T. The Bears then took a pair of losses to Drake 68-61 and 78-73.
In Sunday’s loss, there wasn’t much scoring to go around for the Bears, and no one finished in double-digits. Leading the way was Keaton Hervey on nine points and two rebounds. Isiaih Mosley pulled down 10 rebounds with eight points as well.
Missouri State is 15-5 ATS in their last 20 games overall and 8-3 ATS in their last 11 home games. The over is 6-1 in the Bears’ last seven Monday games and 21-7 in their last 28 games overall.
Meanwhile, the Ramblers are 14-4-3 ATS in their last 21 Monday games and 5-0-1 ATS in their last six games overall. Loyola is 3-0-1 ATS in their last four road games and the under is 6-0 in their last six overall.
PICK: I’m going with Loyola in this one. The Bears have put together some pretty good offensive performances this season, notching 68 or more points in each of their first 12 games. That said, Sunday’s matchup was a complete dud for Missouri State, and after that ugly first half there was nothing the Bears could do. I think the Ramblers will come back with another big effort and bag a cover here.