The Brown Bears and the Northwestern Wildcats meet Thursday in college basketball action from Welsh-Ryan Arena. Brown is currently 7-5 overall. The Bears beat New Hampshire in their last game. As for Northwestern, they’re 9-2 this season and fresh off a win over UIC. Check back all season long for free college basketball picks at Sports Chat Place.
Brown went just 2-4 over their first six games this year, beating Stony Brook and Maine. Since then the Bears have hit a nice 5-1 run with wins over Central CT State, Bryant, Hartford, Rhode Island and New Hampshire.
In the New Hampshire game last Wednesday, the Bears jumped out to a 28-19 lead by halftime. Brown kept it going with a 39-32 run from there and won 67-51. Tops in scoring was Nana Owusu-Anane with 16 points and five boards.
Over on the Northwestern side, they have losses to Auburn and Pittsburgh this year. The wins otherwise have been versus Chicago State, Northern Illinois, Georgetown, Fort Wayne, Liberty, Michigan State, Prairie View, DePaul and UIC.
In the UIC matchup last Tuesday, the Wildcats didn’t have much trouble. Northwestern hit 42 points in the first half and 50 more in the second for a 92-54 win. Chase Audige led the team on 19 points with four rebounds.
PICK: I’ll probably stay with Northwestern. The Wildcats cruised in their last game against UIC, shooting 51.4 percent from the field with 44 rebounds and 20 team assists. Northwestern has been scoring well lately with 70 or more in three of their last four games (going 4-0 in that time). As for Brown, they’re on a nice 6-1 run themselves (with a loss to Michigan State) but they’ve only hit 70 points twice in that span. I don’t think the Bears will be able to keep up here.
