The Northern Arizona Lumberjacks and the Northern Colorado Bears meet Monday in college basketball action from Bank of Colorado Arena. Northern Arizona is sitting at 8-14 so far this year. As for Northern Colorado, they’re currently 11-11 on the season. This will be a rematch of Saturday’s game featuring these teams. Northern Colorado managed a three-point win in that game. Check back all season long for free college basketball picks at Sports Chat Place.
Northern Arizona went 3-2 over their first five games this year, then hit an ugly 3-9 skid over the next dozen. The Lumberjacks are just 2-3 since then, taking losses to Portland State, Southern Utah and Northern Colorado in that time.
In the Northern Colorado game on Saturday, the Lumberjacks had a 34-29 lead at the break. Northern Arizona was outscored 37-45 from there in a rough 74-71 loss. Tops in scoring was Jalen Cone, doubling up on 19 points and 11 rebounds.
Over on the Northern Colorado side, they posted a 10-8 run over their first 18 games this year but couldn’t win more than three consecutive games. The Bears lost to Weber State and Portland State (twice) in succession, then beat Northern Arizona.
Northern Colorado shot a solid 49.2 percent from the field in the Saturday game and only committed seven turnovers during the three-point victory. Daylen Kountz led the team with 24 points, two rebounds and two assists.
The Bears are 0-4 ATS in the last four overall and 0-4 ATS in their last four at home. Northern Colorado is 1-4 ATS in their last five Monday games.
Meanwhile, the Lumberjacks are 4-1 ATS in their last five road games and 4-1 ATS in the last five overall. The under is 10-4 in Northern Arizona’s last 14 Monday games.
PICK: I’m going to take Northern Arizona. I was going to try Northern Colorado here, but the line is just too thick. The Lumberjacks posted a 43.8 percent shooting rate in the Saturday loss, but the good news is that they out-rebounded the Bears 41-31. Northern Arizona is going to have to get the offense going here, though; they’ve hit 70 points just three times in their last six games.
As for the Bears, if they shoot reasonably well in this one it should be another close game. I like this one to be competitive the whole way, with Northern Arizona banging out a cover.