Northern Illinois vs Bowling Green 1/18/22 College Basketball Picks, Predictions, Odds
Bowling Green Falcons (8-8) vs. Northern Illinois Huskies (5-8)
January 18, 2022 8:00 pm EDT
The Line: Northern Illinois Huskies +5.5 / Bowling Green Falcons -5.5; Over/Under: -146.5
(Get latest betting odds)
The Bowling Green Falcons and the Northern Illinois Huskies meet in college basketball MAC-tion from the NIU Convocation Center on Tuesday night.
The Bowling Green Falcons will look to rebound from a 91-78 loss to Toledo last time out. Daeqwon Plowden leads the Falcons in scoring and rebounding with 16.1 PPG and 7.2 RPG while Joe Reece has 11.7 PPG with 6.1 RPG as the only other double-digit scorer for Bowling Green so far this season. Trey Diggs has 9.8 PPG and Samari Curtis has a team-high 2.9 APG as well this season. As a team, Bowling Green is averaging 83.4 PPG on 43.4% shooting from the field, 35% from three and 78% from the foul line while allowing 77.2 PPG on 42.3% shooting from the field and 32.7% from three this season.
The Northern Illinois Huskies will attempt to build on their 77-70 win over Eastern Michigan in their last game. Keshawn Williams leads NIU in scoring with 13.3 PPG while Trendon Hankerson has 10.5 PPG with 3.8 RPG as the only other double-digit scorer for the Huskies so far this season. Kaleb Thornton has 7.8 PPG and 3.1 APG while Anthony Crump’s got 4.5 RPG as well this season. As a team, Northern Illinois is averaging 59.4 points per game on 39% from the field, 33.8% from three and 64.6% from the foul line while allowing 69 PPG on 43.1% shooting from the floor and 31% from three this season.
Bowling Green is 2-5 ATS in their last 7 road games and 15-33-3 ATS in their last 51 games as a favorite while the over is 6-0 in their last 6 games overall. Northern Illinois is 4-1 ATS in their last 5 games overall and 3-8-1 ATS in their last 12 home games while the under is 9-3 in their last 12 games as a home underdog.
I get why Bowling Green’s favored here as the Falcons have a high-scoring offense. However, the Falcons have struggled big time on the road this season, especially in conference play, and while NIU hasn’t been pretty, they’ve done their best work at home this season and I just think this is another spot that NIU could shock their opponent. I’ll take a stab at NIU and the points in this one.
