The Southern Utah Thunderbirds and the Northern Colorado Bears meet Monday in college basketball action from Bank of Colorado Arena. Southern Utah is 16-7 on the year. The Thunderbirds took out Sacramento State in their last game. As for Northern Colorado, they’re 13-11 and coming off a win over Sacramento State as well. Check back all season long for free college basketball picks at Sports Chat Place.
Southern Utah hit a 9-5 run over their first 14 games this year, then weren’t able to play from January 1 to January 17. Since then the Thunderbirds are on a 7-2 run. After their latest loss to Montana, Southern Utah took out Sacramento State over the weekend.
Matched up against Sac State on Saturday, the Thunderbirds jumped out to a 43-22 lead by halftime. Southern Utah finished on a 40-35 run for an 83-57 victory. Leading team scorer Tevian Jones finished with 19 points and four rebounds.
Over on the Northern Colorado side, their year began at 8-8 overall. The Bears could only play three games (a 2-1 stretch) from January 8 to January 31, and since then they’re 3-2. The wins in that time have come over Northern Arizona (twice) and Sacramento State.
Back on Thursday versus Sacramento State, the Bears didn’t have too many issues. Northern Colorado took a 38-32 halftime lead and finished with 41 points for a 79-61 victory. Daylen Kountz was the leading scorer on 27 points with six rebounds.
Northern Colorado is 1-4 ATS in the last five at home and 7-3-1 ATS in their last 11 after a straight-up win. The Bears are 2-5 ATS in their last seven after an ATS win.
Meanwhile, the Thunderbirds are 1-4 ATS in their last five road games and 4-17 ATS in their last 21 Monday games. Southern Utah is 4-11 ATS in their last 15 overall.
PICK: I’m going to go with Southern Utah here. You could probably make a case either way, though; this should be a good matchup. The Thunderbirds have been great on the scoreboard lately; they’ve hit 75 or more points in nine of their last 10 games. That said, the last time these teams met up, Northern Colorado took a 91-81 road victory on January 1. Southern Utah has been playing well enough lately to make me think they’re in line for a revenge cover/win here, but it should be pretty tight regardless.