The Eastern Illinois Panthers and the UT-Martin Skyhawks meet in college basketball action from the Kathleen and Tom Elam Center on Thursday night.
The Eastern Illinois Panthers will look to rebound from a 90-56 loss at the hands of Belmont last time out. Kashawn Charles leads the Panthers in scoring with 8.9 PPG while Kejuan Clements has 8.5 PPG with Clements logging 4.4 RPG and a team-high 4.2 APG to lead the Panthers in the assist department. Rodolfo Rufino Bolis also has a team-high 4.8 RPG to lead the Panthers in rebounding so far this season. As a team, Eastern Illinois is averaging 55.7 PPG on 38.7% shooting from the field, 32.1% from three and 60.5% from the foul line while allowing 73 PPG on 45% shooting from the field and 34.8% from three this season.
The UT-Martin Skyhawks will look to build on a 76-70 win over SIU-Edwardsville last time out. KJ Simon leads the Skyhawks in scoring with 16.8 PPG along with 5 RPG while KK Curry has 10.3 PPG with a team-high 5.2 RPG as the only other double-digit scorer for UT-Martin so far this season. Bernie Andre has 8.7 PPG and Koby Jeffries has also dished out a team-high 3 APG as well this season. As a team, UT-Martin is averaging 70.7 PPG on 42.4% shooting from the field, 30% from three and 70.3% from the foul line while allowing 74.1 PPG on 43.2% shooting from the field and 32.4% from three this season.
Eastern Illinois is 6-20 ATS in their last 26 games against a team with a winning percentage below .400 and 0-4 ATS in their last 4 games following a double-digit loss at home while the under is 21-6 in their last 27 road games. UT-Martin is 6-2 ATS in their last 8 games against a team with a losing record and 3-10 ATS in their last 13 Thursday games while the under is 4-1-1 in their last 6 games overall.
I think the only option for this one is the under. Eastern Illinois is one of the worst offensive teams in the country and while UT-Martin has been better between the two, I just don’t see the Skyhawks really doing enough to send us flying over the total. Give me the under in this one.