Southern Illinois vs Northern Iowa Prediction Basketball Picks 3-3-24

The Northern Iowa Panthers and the Southern Illinois Salukis meet Sunday in college basketball action from SIU Arena. Northern Iowa is 17-13 overall after a win over Valparaiso. As for Southern Illinois, they’re coming off a loss to Bradley that dropped the Salukis to 19-11 so far. Let’s get into our Northern Illinois vs. Southern Illinois prediction. Check back all season long for free college basketball picks at Sports Chat Place.

Northern Iowa Panthers

The Panthers started out the year at 12-8, then hit a 1-4 stretch in January. Those losses came versus Drake, Bradley, Murray State and UIC. Since then Northern Iowa is 4-1 with victories over Valparaiso (twice), Bradley and Drake alongside a lone loss to Illinois State.

In the Valparaiso rematch on Tuesday, the Panthers managed to hit a 38-21 run in the first half. Northern Iowa closed on a 33-30 deficit during an eventual win 68-54. Leading team scorer Landon Wolf came off the bench to post 14 points with two rebounds and one assist.

Southern Illinois Salukis

Over on the Southern Illinois side, they were 14-7 in late January before a 2-3 run over the next five. The Salukis lost to Missouri State, Drake and Belmont in that time. After wins over Indiana State, Murray State and Evansville the Salukis took another loss on Wednesday versus Bradley.

Matched up against Bradley in their latest outing, the Salukis came out of the break with a 37-27 deficit. Southern Illinois didn’t end up getting any closer than that with a 49-40 second half in an 86-67 loss. AJ Ferguson was the top performer on 16 points with nine rebounds.

ANDREW’S FREE NORTHERN IOWA VS SOUTHERN ILLINOIS PREDICTION

I’ll try Southern Illinois in this one. The Salukis didn’t play all that well versus a good Bradley team in their last outing, though. Southern Illinois shot fairly well (45.3 percent) but also got out-rebounded 39-28 and had 14 turnovers for 22 Braves points. The good news is that Southern Illinois had held opponents below 70 points in three straight games prior to that.

In the last meeting between these teams, Southern Illinois took a 61-57 road loss on January 20. Northern Iowa was bad from the line (58.1 percent) and the Salukis were bad from the field (37.7 percent) in a sloppy game featuring 14 Southern Illinois turnovers. The Salukis should post a cleaner effort at home in the rematch and I think they’ll cover.