The North Dakota State Bison and the UMKC Roos meet Thursday in college basketball action from Swinney Recreation Center. North Dakota State is 11-6 on the year so far. The Bison lost to Western Illinois in OT during their last outing. As for UMKC, they’re 8-8 and coming off a loss to Denver. Check back all season long for free college basketball picks at Sports Chat Place.
North Dakota State posted a pretty solid 9-4 run over their first 13 games, losing to UNLV, Arizona, Creighton and Montana State in that stretch. It’s been a 2-2 run since then with wins over Omaha and Denver between losses to SD State and Western Illinois.
Matched up against Western Illinois on Saturday, the Bison fought back from a 48-34 halftime deficit to force overtime. North Dakota State was outscored 13-2 from there in a 90-79 loss. Rocky Kreuser led the team with 19 points and seven rebounds.
Over on the UMKC side, they started out on a 5-6 run over their first 11 games. The Roos then hit a win streak over South Dakota, Omaha and Baptist Bible College (MO). In the last pair it’s been losses to Oral Roberts and Denver.
In the Denver game, the Roos were outscored 30-23 in the first half and 33-32 from there in a 63-55 defeat. UMKC’s Evan Gilyard led the team with 16 points and two rebounds. Arkel Lamar added 13 points and three boards as well.
The Roos are 1-4-1 ATS in their last six on Thursday and 1-5 ATS in their last six overall. The under is 6-2 in UMKC’s last eight overall.
Meanwhile, the Bison are 8-18 ATS in their last 26 Thursday games and 1-4 ATS in their last five overall. The over is 6-1 in ND State’s last seven overall.
PICK: I’m going to try North Dakota State here. The Bison had a rough first half against Western Illinois in their last game but were still able to fight back and make things respectable in the OT loss. ND State has scored pretty well lately with 68 or more points in each of their last eight games. As for UMKC, they’ve been spotty on offense depending on the matchup, so it’s hard telling what we’ll get from them here. Ultimately North Dakota looks better on a potential cover/win to me, but it’s a coin flip essentially.