The James Madison Dukes and the Northeastern Huskies meet in college basketball action from Matthews Arena on Saturday afternoon.

The James Madison Dukes will look to build on an 81-72 win over Towson last time out to extend their winning streak to three games and the record to 6-4 on the year. Matt Lewis leads the Dukes in scoring, rebounding and assists with 22.5 PPG, 5.1 RPG and 4.3 APG while Vade Morse has 12.6 PPG as the only other double-digit scorer for JMU coming into this matchup. Justin Amadi has 9.6 PPG with 4 RPG while Julien Wooden has 9.3 PPG and Terrence Edwards has 5.7 PPG with 5.1 RPG. As a team, James Madison is averaging 80.5 PPG on 46.7% shooting from the field, 34.3% from 3-point range and 66.3% from the foul line while allowing 70.5 PPG on 40.9% shooting from the field and 28.8% from 3-point range this season.

The Northeastern Huskies will look to add to their six-game winning streak and 7-5 record after a 68-66 win over Charleston last time out. Tyson Walker leads the Huskies in scoring and assists with 16.2 PPG and 5.3 APG while Jahmyl Telfort has 11.2 PPG and Shaquille Walters has 10.8 PPG with a team-high 6.8 RPG this season. Jason Strong has 10.4 PPG to make up the group of double-digit scorers for the Huskies up to this point in the season. As a team, Northeastern is averaging 67.3 PPG on 43.9% shooting from the field, 36.2% from 3-point range and 71.8% from the foul line while giving up 68.2 PPG on 43.2% shooting from the field and 28.5% from 3-point range this season.

James Madison is 4-0 ATS in their last 4 road games and 5-1 ATS in their last 6 games overall while the under is 6-2 in their last 8 games against a team with a losing record. Northeastern is 6-0 ATS in their last 6 games overall and 4-0 ATS in their last 4 home games while the under is 7-3 in their last 10 games overall. The favorite is 6-0 ATS in the last 6 meetings between these two teams.

I get Northeastern being favored at home, but the issue I have is that while the Huskies are 4-0 SU/ATS at home, three of their last four games have been decided by 5 points or less, including the last two games against a Charleston team that’s not very good this season. Northeastern also has a lot of scoring issues as well, actually being outscored overall this season. Maybe it’s because of a tougher schedule, but in conference play, James Madison’s as tough as it gets for a visiting team and I think the Dukes keep this one close if not win outright so I’ll take James Madison and the points in this one.