The Holy Cross Crusaders and the Navy Midshipmen meet in college basketball action from the Alumni Hall on Monday afternoon.
The Holy Cross Crusaders come into this one looking to build on a 60-58 win over Bucknell in their last game. Gerrale Gates leads the Crusaders in scoring and rebounding with 17.5 PPG and 8.8 RPG while Bo Montgomery has 12.2 PPG with 3.8 RPG and a team-high 2.6 APG to lead the Crusaders in assists. Joseph Octave has 10 PPG to cap off the trio of double-digit scorers for Holy Cross up to this point in the year. As a team, Holy Cross is averaging 65.9 PPG on 43.2% shooting from the field, 34.6% from three and 64.1% from the foul line this season.
The Navy Midshipmen will look to build on a 75-58 win over Boston University last time out. Tyler Nelson leads the Midshipmen in scoring with 14.2 PPG along with 5.6 RPG as the lone double-digit scorer for Navy so far this season while Daniel Deaver has 9.7 PPG with a team-high 5.7 RPG and 3.4 APG to lead the Middies in rebounding and assists this season. As a team, Navy is averaging 73.3 PPG on 48.1% shooting from the field, 40.6% from three and 71.1% from the foul line this season.
Holy Cross is 1-6 ATS in their last 7 Monday games and 5-1 ATS in their last 6 games overall while the under is 5-2 in their last 7 games overall. Navy is 5-0 ATS in their last 5 home games and 3-9 ATS in their last 12 games following an ATS win while the over is 5-0 in their last 5 home games.
I get the case to be made for either side in this game, but I’m leaning towards Holy Cross and the points here. As well as Navy’s been playing, it’s hard for me to lay this many points when Holy Cross hasn’t been that much worse defensively and while Navy is 6th in the country in three-point shooting, that’s the one area of the floor that Holy Cross defends well. The Crusaders have been fairly competitive in their road games and I think this is a game that is closer than the line would suggest so give me Holy Cross and the points as I think the Middies win this one by 10-12 at most.