Western Illinois vs Tennessee-Martin 12/4/21 College Basketball Picks, Predictions, Odds
Tennessee-Martin Skyhawks (3-5) vs. Western Illinois Leathernecks (6-2)
December 4, 2021 2:00 pm EDT
The Line: Western Illinois Leathernecks -13.5 / Tennessee-Martin Skyhawks +13.5; Over/Under: +152
(Get latest betting odds)
The UT-Martin Skyhawks and the Western Illinois Leathernecks meet in college basketball action from Western Hall on Saturday afternoon.
The UT-Martin Skyhawks will try to bounce back from a 73-61 loss to Middle Tennessee in their last game. KJ Simon leads the Skyhawks in scoring with 15.9 PPG along with 5.5 RPG while KK Curry has 13.4 PPG with a team-high 6.6 RPG and Darius Simons has 11.9 PPG to make up the trio of double-digit scorers for UT-Martin so far this season. Koby Jeffries has also dished out a team-high 4 APG as well this season. As a team, UT-Martin is averaging 74.6 PPG on 45.5% shooting from the field, 32.7% from three and 66.3% fro the foul line while allowing 72.5 PPG on 41.1% shooting from the field and 31.1% from three this season.
The Western Illinois Leathernecks will try to build on their 93-80 win over Ball State last time out. Colton Sandage leads WIU in scoring and assists with 15.9 PPG ad 3.6 APG while Will Carlus and Luka Barisic each have 15+ PPG as well and Trenton Massner has 13.6 PPG with a team-high 6.6 RPG and 3.5 APG as well on the year. Tamell Pearson also has 8.6 PPG and 6.4 RPG as well this season. As a team, Western Illinois is averaging 81.5 PPG on 43.2% shooting from the field, 37.8% from three and 66% from the foul line while allowing 73 PPG on 42.7% shooting from the field and 33.8% from three this season.
UT-Martin is 4-1 ATS in their last 5 road games and 7-22 ATS in their last 29 road games against a team with a home winning percentage of .600 or better while the over is 4-1 in their last 5 Saturday games. Western Illinois is 4-0 ATS in their last 4 home games and 4-0 ATS in their last 4 games as a favorite while the over is 4-1 in their last 5 games following a win.
I get that this is not an ideal number to lay with a fairly unproven team like Western Illinois, but the bottom line here is that the Leathernecks are playing far better basketb4all than UT-Martin right now and have had no issue filling it up as of late. I just don’t think UT-Martin can keep up here, so I’ll lay it and play it with Western Illinois here.
