The Denver Pioneers and the St. Thomas (MN) Tommies meet in college hoops action from the Schoenecker Arena on Thursday night.
The Denver Pioneers come into this one looking to snap a four-game losing streak after a 72-69 loss to Omaha in their last game. KJ Hunt leads the Pioneers in scoring and assists with 15.5 PPG and 3.5 APG while also logging 4.6 RPG. and Jordan Johnson’s got 11 PPG so far this season. Coban Porter has 11 PPG and Tevin Smith’s got 10.3 PPG to cap off the group of double-digit scorers for Denver so far this season. As a team, Denver is averaging 69.7 PPG on 45.1% shooting from the field, 36.3% from three and 69.9% from the foul line while allowing 73.8 PPG on 44.6% shooting from the field and 35.5% from three this season.
The St. Thomas (MN) Tommies will try to build on an 84-74 road win over North Dakota last time out. Riley Miller leads the Tommies in scoring with 15.6 PPG along with 2.3 APG while Anders Nelson has 14.2 PPG with a team-high 2.8 APG and Parker Bjorklund has 12.8 PPG with 6.3 RPG to make up the trio of double-digit scorers for St. Thomas (MN) this season. As a team, St. Thomas (MN) is averaging 73.8 PPG on 43.4% shooting from the field, 35.4% from three and 75.8% from the foul line while allowing 74.8 PPG on 48.5% from the field and 37.5% from three this season.
Denver is 1-4 ATS in their last 5 games as an underdog and 1-6-1 ATS in their last 8 road games against a team with a losing home record while the under is 4-1 in their last 5 road games. St. Thomas (MN) is 0-6 ATS in their last 6 home games and 0-5 ATS in their last 5 Thursday games while the under is 6-1 in their last 7 games overall.
I get why you could look at Denver here, but the issue I have is that both teams struggle defensively, but the Tommies are a better offensive unit in terms of producing points and we’ve seen the Pioneers get torched left and right in conference. There are better options on Thursday’s board, but I’ll side with the Tommies here.