The Montana State Bobcats and Northern Arizona Lumberjacks meet Thursday in college basketball action at the J. Lawrence Walkup Skydome. The Montana State Bobcats look for a win after winning 11 of their last 13 games. The Northern Arizona Lumberjacks need a win after losing seven of their last 10 games.
The Montana State Bobcats are averaging 77.1 points on 46.7 percent shooting and allowing 68.3 points on 41.9 percent shooting. Jubrile Belo is averaging 13.6 points and 1 assist, while Xavier Bishop is averaging 12.2 points and 3.2 rebounds. Amin Adamu is the third double-digit scorer and Tyler Patterson is dishing 0.8 assists. The Montana State Bobcats are shooting 36.3 percent from beyond the arc and 73.3 percent from the free throw line. The Montana State Bobcats are allowing 31.6 percent shooting from deep and are grabbing 33 rebounds per game.
The Northern Arizona Lumberjacks are averaging 69.7 points on 41.9 percent shooting and allowing 72.6 points on 44.1 percent shooting. Jalen Cone is averaging 18.4 points and 3.4 assists, while Nik Mains is averaging 12.7 points and 5.1 rebounds. Keith Haymon is dishing 0.9 assists and Carson Towt is grabbing 9.9 rebounds. The Northern Arizona Lumberjacks are shooting 37.1 percent from beyond the arc and 66.9 percent from the free throw line. The Northern Arizona Lumberjacks are allowing 34.1 percent shooting from deep and are grabbing 35.2 rebounds per game.
The Bobcats are 4-1-1 ATS in their last 6 road games and 8-3 ATS in their last 11 games overall. The Lumberjacks are 7-18-1 ATS in their last 26 home games and 0-4 ATS in their last 4 games overall. The under is 5-2 in Bobcats last 7 overall. The under is 5-2 in Lumberjacks last 7 Thursday games. The road team is 3-0-1 ATS in the last 4 meetings.
These are two teams heading in completely different directions, and the Montana State Bobcats are comfortably the better team at both ends of the court. The Northern Arizona Lumberjacks are going nowhere fast, mainly due to a struggling defense, and they don’t cover numbers despite being underdogs a lot. Montana State should have its way in this game with a balanced attack. I’ll lay the reasonable line.