The Idaho State Bengals and the Montana State Bobcats meet in college hoop action from Worthington Arena on Saturday afternoon.
The Idaho State Bengals will look to rebound from a 78-54 loss at the hands of Montana in their last game. Tarik Cool leads the Bengals in scoring with 11 PPG and 2 APG while Robert Ford III has 10.9 PPG with a team-high 4.6 RPG as the only other double-digit scorer for Idaho State outside of Cool this season. Brayden Parker also has 8.8 PPG and Austin Smellie has a team-high 2.3 APG as well this season. As a team, Idaho State is averaging 60.8 PPG on 40.6% shooting from the field, 30.6% from three and 66.4% from the foul line while allowing 70.7 PPG on 43% shooting from the field and 33.2% from three this season.
The Montana State Bobcats will look to bounce back from an 85-75 loss to Weber State at home in their last game. Jubrile Belo leads the Bobcats in scoring with 13.9 PPG along with 6.1 RPG while Abdul Mohammed has a team-high 7.1 RPG to lead the Bobcats on the glass along with 9.3 PPG. Xavier Bishop has 12.1 PPG with a team-high 4.6 APG on the year to lead Montana State in assists. Amin Adamu and Tyler Patterson each have 10+ PPG to make up the group of double-digit scorers up to this point in the season. As a team, Montana State is averaging 78.1 PPG on 46.5% shooting from the field, 36.7% from three and 73.3% from the foul line while allowing 70.7 PPG on 43% shooting from the field and 33.2% from three this season.
Idaho State is 0-9 ATS in their last 9 games following a loss and 1-7 ATS in their last 8 road games while the under is 8-1 in their last 9 road games against a team with a winning home record. Montana State is 1-8-1 ATS in their last 10 games following a loss and 1-6 ATS in their last 7 home games against a team with a losing road record while the over is 4-1 in their last 5 games against a team with a winning percentage below .400.
I get the case to be made for an underdog in certain spots but Idaho State’s really struggled on the road as of late and while Montana State is far from a world beater, they’re still the better team and are at home here. I’ll lay the points with Montana State in this spot.