The Central Arkansas Bears and the North Florida Ospreys meet in college basketball action from the UNF Arena on Thursday night.
The Central Arkansas Bears will look to rebound from an 86-81 loss to Jacksonville State last time out. Darious Hall leads the Bears across the board with team-highs of 13.9 PPG, 7.7 RPG and 2.7 APG while Camren Hunter has 12.9 PPG with 4.2 RPG and 2.7 APG and Collin Cooper has 10.5 PPG with 2.5 APG to cap off the trio of double-digit scorers for Central Arkansas so far this season. As a team, Central Arkansas is averaging 72.9 PPG on 44.6% shooting from the field, 31.1% from three and 73.6% from the foul line while allowing 82.4 PPG on 47.2% shooting from the field and 34.3% from three this season.
The North Florida Ospreys will try to snap a seven-game losing skid after a 67-58 loss to Eastern Kentucky last time out. Jose Placer leads the Ospreys in scoring and assists with 13.2 PPG and 2.8 APG while Carter Hendricksen has 11 PPG with 4.5 RPG as the only other double-digit scorer for North Florida so far this season. Jarius Hicklen has 9.7 PPG while Jadyn Parker has 8 PPG with a team-high 4.9 RPG to lead the Ospreys on the glass this season. As a team, North Florida is averaging 66.7 PPG on 40.8% shooting from the field, 33.4% from three and 73.6% from the foul line while allowing 71.5 PPG on 44.2% shooting from the field and 33.3% from three this season.
Central Arkansas is 5-1 ATS in their last 6 games overall and 2-10-1 ATS in their last 13 games against a team with a losing record while the over is 8-2 in their last 10 games overall. North Florida is 11-2 ATS in their last 13 Thursday games and 4-1 ATS in their last 5 games overall while the under is 4-1 in their last 5 home games.
I get that North Florida has had some tough games as of late, like Florida State and Liberty on the road, but that doesn’t change the fact that the Ospreys have lost seven straight. Even if the Ospreys win this one, they’ve played in a lot of close games as well as of late, so I’ll take my chances with Central Arkansas in this one.