Oklahoma Sooners (11-1) vs Monmouth Hawks (7-4)
2023-12-31 15:00:00 EDT
The Line: Betting Odds: Oklahoma Sooners -19.5 -- Over/Under: 143
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The Monmouth Hawks and the Oklahoma Sooners meet Sunday in college basketball action from Lloyd Noble Center. Monmouth is coming off a win over Manhattan that brought the Hawks to 7-5 on the year. As for Oklahoma, they’re 11-1 after a victory over Central Arkansas back on Thursday. Let’s get into our Monmouth vs. Oklahoma prediction. Check back all season long for free college basketball picks at Sports Chat Place.
Monmouth Hawks
The Hawks managed a pretty solid 4-2 start to the year, falling to only George Mason and Princeton. A 1-3 stretch came afterward as Monmouth lost to Pennsylvania, Cornell and Seton Hall (with a win over Northern Illinois). Since then the Hawks have managed to take out Rider and Manhattan in consecutive games.
In the Manhattan matchup, the Hawks faced a three-point deficit going into the second half. Monmouth responded with 43 points from there and powered out a 77-71 victory. Leading the charge was Xander Rice with 24 points, while Jack Collins doubled up on 12 points and 13 rebounds.
Oklahoma Sooners
Over on the Sooners’ side, they kicked off the year with 10 straight victories. Those came versus Central Michigan, MS Valley State, Texas State, UTRGV, Iowa, USC, AR-Pine Bluff, Providence, Arkansas and Green Bay. Following their lone loss to North Carolina 81-69, Oklahoma took out Central Arkansas in their last outing.
On Thursday versus Central Arkansas, the Sooners were up 50-42 going into the locker room. Oklahoma managed to keep the Bears at bay with a 38-30 run from there and took the game 88-72. Tops in scoring on the team was Javian McCollum on 23 points and two steals in 34 minutes of work.
ANDREW’S FREE MONMOUTH VS OKLAHOMA PREDICTION
I’ll take a stab on Monmouth. The Hawks haven’t been playing too badly lately, and they’re coming off a pretty solid win over Manhattan. Monmouth shot 46.8 percent from the field with a 47-34 rebounding edge in that one, but did cough up 14 turnovers. The Hawks have hit 74 or more points in four of their last five games, and if they can find a good scoring rhythm on Sunday I think Monmouth can keep the pace.
As for Oklahoma, they were fairly permissive to a struggling Central Arkansas team in their latest matchup, surrendering 47.4 percent shooting from the field. The Sooners have an equal chance of simply blowing out Monmouth in this one though, so this one seems like a coin flip.
