The Seattle Redhawks and the Portland Pilots meet Saturday in college basketball action from Chiles Center. Seattle is sitting at 3-0 so far following a win over Portland State in their last outing. As for Portland, they’re 4-1 on the season and beat Air Force in their most recent game. Check back all season long for free college basketball picks at Sports Chat Place.
Seattle began their season with a couple of relatively tame matchups. First came the opener versus UC San Diego. The Redhawks won that one 85-71. In game two against Puget Sound, Seattle again came out on top 106-55.
The Redhawks took on Portland State in game three back on Sunday. Seattle managed a 43-34 edge by halftime and cruised to the 83-71 victory. Cameron Tyson led the team on 32 points, and Paris Dawson added 18 points.
Over on the Portland side, they’ve gotten a lot of games in already this season. The Pilots took out Lewis & Clark in their opener 89-62, then beat Florida A&M 91-54 and Portland State 98-91. Portland’s first loss was 77-65 versus Kent State.
On Thursday versus Air Force, Portland got back into the win column with a solid outing. The Pilots held a 32-29 edge at halftime, then scored 32 more points for a 64-51 win. Tyler Robertson topped the team on 15 points and four boards.
PICK: I’m going to stay with Portland. The Pilots have looked pretty good so far this year, outside of the loss to Kent State. (That matchup featured a bad first half with a 38-24 deficit.) Portland didn’t shoot great (37 percent) against Air Force, relying on defense and a 34-30 rebounding edge (9-5 offensive) to get the win. It will be interesting to see the Pilots facing a Seattle offense that’s been pretty darn good so far. I think Portland will power out the cover in a competitive matchup.