The Portland State Vikings and the Northern Colorado Bears meet in college basketball action from the Idaho Central Arena on Friday night.
The Portland State Vikings will look to build on their 77-65 win over Southern Utah last time out. James Jean-Marie leads the Vikings in scoring and rebounding, with 12.9 PPG and 8.9 RPG while Damion Squire has 10.4 PPG in 16 games. Khalid Thomas has 12.6 PPG while Ezekiel Alley and Michael Carter III each have 10+ PPG to make up the scoring in double figures for Portland State with Carter III logging a team-high 2.7 APG and the aforementioned Thomas leading the Vikings with 6.3 RPG this season. As a team, Portland State is averaging 73.5 PPG on 43% shooting from the field, 29.9% from three and 74.5% from the foul line while allowing 72.6 PPG on 44.9% shooting from the field and 37.1% from three this season.
The Northern Colorado Bears will look to build on their 68-67 win over Eastern Washington last time out. Daylen Kountz leads the Bears in scoring with 20.8 PPG along with 4 RPG while Matt Johnson has 14.3 PPG with a team-high 3.8 APG this season. Bodie Hume has 11.1 PPG with 5.8 RPG and Dru Kuxhausen has 11.3 PPG to make up the group of double-digit scorers for Northern Colorado State so far this season while Kur Jongkuch has a team-high 8.4 RPG to lead Northern Colorado in rebounding this season. As a team, Northern Colorado is averaging 78.7 PPG on 48.1% shooting from the field, 38.5% from three and 71.4% from the foul line while allowing 76.8 PPG on 46.1% shooting from the field and 37.1% from three this season.
Portland State is 10-4 ATS in their last 14 games overall and 7-2 ATS in their last 9 games as an underdog while the over is 9-2 in their last 11 games following a win. Northern Colorado is 2-6 ATS in their last 8 games against a team with a losing record and 0-5 ATS in their last 5 games as a favorite while the over is 19-7 in their last 26 games overall.
I get the case to be made for Northern Colorado being favored here as the Bears were the better team over the course of conference play while Portland State has won both meetings with the Bears this season. Instead, while I do lean towards Portland State, I’m siding with the over as both meetings also went over and these are two of the more efficient offenses left standing. I’ll side with the over in another track meet.