The Milwaukee Panthers and the Fort Wayne Mastodons meet Friday in college basketball action from Allen County War Memorial Coliseum. Milwaukee is 7-15 on the season and coming off a loss to Youngstown State. As for Fort Wayne, they’re 11-10 so far. The Mastodons lost to Wright State in their last outing. Check back all season long for free college basketball picks at Sports Chat Place.
Milwaukee posted a 5-9 run to begin the season, then hit a losing streak versus Detroit, Oakland and UIC. After wins over IUPUI and Oakland, the Panthers lost three more in a row to Detroit, Robert Morris and Youngstown State.
In the Youngstown State game, the Panthers were outscored 41-21 in the first half. Milwaukee scored 51 points from there but still lost 86-72. Leading scorer Jordan Lathon put up 20 points with three boards and one assist in 29 minutes.
Over on the Fort Wayne side, their year began at 5-7 through a dozen games. The Mastodons then hit a 6-1 run with wins over Youngstown State (twice), Robert Morris (twice), Detroit and Michigan-Dearborn. Since then it’s been losses to Northern Kentucky and Wright State.
In the Wright State game, the Mastodons managed 30 points in the first half and 33 more in the second during a 75-63 loss. Jared Godfrey led the team with 14 points and eight rebounds. Damian Chong Qui added 12 points and four boards.
The Mastodons are 8-3 ATS in their last 11 overall and 5-1 ATS in the last six at home. Fort Wayne is 9-2 ATS in their last 11 after a straight-up loss.
Meanwhile, the Panthers are 0-4 ATS in their last four road games and 2-6 ATS in their last eight Friday games. Milwaukee is 2-6 ATS in their last eight overall.
PICK: I’m going to try Fort Wayne here. The Mastodons have been pretty ineffective on offense during the last couple of games (both on the road). They’ve hit a combined 112 points in that pair; Fort Wayne had hit 82 or more in each of the previous three. Milwaukee has had their ups and downs on the scoreboard as well (58 or fewer in two of the last three), but I like both teams to put up a good total in a Fort Wayne cover here.