The Northern Iowa Panthers and the Texas Tech Red Raiders meet Thursday in college basketball action from Imperial Arena. Northern Iowa took a blowout loss to North Carolina in their Wednesday game, dropping the Panthers to 1-3 on the season. As for 3-1 Texas Tech, they lost to Villanova in their Wednesday game. Here’s a Northern Iowa vs Texas Tech Prediction.

Northern Iowa Panthers 

The Panthers kicked off the season with a couple of solid outings, losing 83-77 in overtime to North Texas in their opener before getting their first win over Loras 90-50 in game two. Northern Iowa came back with a loss to South Florida 74-65 on Sunday. The Panthers hit just five of their 28 attempts from 3-point range (17.9 percent) but did bag 34 rebounds in that loss. 

Northern Iowa had an unenviable matchup on Wednesday versus North Carolina, but the Panthers had a great first half on a 41-35 edge. In the second, Northern Iowa came back to earth with 56 points allowed and lost 91-69. Leading the charge was Nate Heise with 14 points, three rebounds and two assists. 

More College Basketball Picks: Oklahoma vs Iowa Prediction!

Texas Tech Red Raiders 

Over on the Texas Tech side, they sandwiched a couple of solid scoring efforts around a tepid 56-42 win over San Jose State in their first three games. The Raiders beat Texas A&M-Commerce 73-46 and Texas A&M-CC 73-64 otherwise. Texas Tech hit 44.4 percent from the field against the Islanders, with a nice 45-34 rebounding edge. 

In Wednesday’s game versus Villanova, Texas Tech fell into the offensive doldrums once again. The Raiders were outscored 41-33 in the first half and didn’t get any better from there in an 85-69 loss. Richard Isaacs led the way on 16 points and three boards, while Joe Toussaint chipped in 15 points with eight assists. 

ANDREW’S FREE TEXAS TECH VS NORTHERN IOWA PREDICTION 

I’m going to stick with the Raiders. In their Wednesday matchup, Texas Tech looked pretty flat at times against a tough Villanova squad. The Red Raiders hit just 13-of-22 (59.1 percent) from the line and got outmuscled on the boards 39-31 to go along with their 15 turnovers, but they should match up a lot better versus the Panthers. 

Speaking of Northern Iowa, they overachieved in the first half against North Carolina and eventually hit 45.3 percent from the floor. The 17 turnovers didn’t help matters either. All things considered I wouldn’t be surprised to see another strong effort from the Panthers here, but I think Texas Tech takes the cover.