The SIU Edwardsville Cougars and the Tennessee-Martin Skyhawks meet Monday in college basketball action from Elam Center. SIU Edwardsville is currently 7-11 on the year. The Cougars lost to Morehead State in their last game. As for TN-Martin, they’re sitting at 6-13 and coming off a loss to Murray State. Check back all season long for free college basketball picks at Sports Chat Place.
SIU Edwardsville got off to a 6-6 run during their first 12 games this year. It’s been a 1-5 stretch since then, however. The Cougars have a win over Eastern Illinois mixed with losses to South Alabama, Murray State, Belmont, Tennessee Tech and Morehead State in that time.
In the Morehead State game on Saturday, the Cougars were within one point at halftime but faded from there on a 44-42 deficit during a 77-74 loss. Leading the scoring was Ray’Sean Taylor with 26 points, two rebounds and four assists.
Over on the TN-Martin side, they hit a 6-8 run out of the gate this year with wins over Miami-Hamilton, North Dakota, Carver, UNC Asheville, Austin Peay and Tennessee State. It’s been a five-game losing streak since, most recently to Murray State on Saturday.
Matched up against Murray State in their last game, the Skyhawks were outscored 32-29 in the first half and 42-37 in the second during a 74-66 defeat. Leading scorer Bernie Andre doubled up on 17 points and 11 assists in 30 bench minutes.
The Skyhawks are 1-4 ATS in their last five at home and 3-13 ATS in their last 16 after an ATS win. TN-Martin is 6-2 ATS in their last eight Monday games.
Meanwhile, the Cougars are 2-6 ATS in their last eight Monday games and 19-7 ATS in their last 26 after a straight-up loss. The over is 5-1 in the Cougars’ last six road games.
PICK: I’m going to take a stab on SIU Edwardsville here. This is a tough one to call, however; we should have a pretty solid matchup on our hands. In any case, the Cougars have had some issues over this 1-5 run but they’re not scoring too badly. SIUE has hit 69 or more points in four of those six games (losing all of them, oddly enough). As for TN-Martin, they’ve been at 66 points or below in four of their last five. It might not be pretty but I think SIU Edwardsville can power out a cover/win in this one.