The Western Michigan Broncos and the IPFW Mastodons meet in college basketball action from the Alico Arena on Saturday.
The Western Michigan Broncos will be out to bounce back from a 77-67 loss at the hands of Florida Gulf Coast last time out. Heading into Friday’s game, Lamar Norman Jr. leads the Broncos as the lone double-digit scorer for WMU with 18 PPG while Mack Smith has 9.8 PPG with 4.5 RPG and Markeese Hastins has a team-high 7 RPG while Adrian Martin’s chipping in a team-high 2.7 APG as well this season. As a team, Western Michigan is averaging 61.5 PPG on 38% shooting form the field, 30.5% from three and 63.8% from the foul line while allowing 84.3 PPG on 46.5% shooting from the field and 30.9% from three this season.
The IPFW Mastodons come into this one looking to build on their 74-66 win over Southeast Louisiana last time out. Jalon Pipkins has 16 PPG along with 5.3 RPG while Jarred Godfrey has 13.7 PPG with 4 RPG and a team-high 4.3 APG. RA Kpedi has 11 PPG with a team-high 6.7 RPG as well to finish off the scoring in double figures for the Mastodons this season. As a team, IPFW is averaging 72.8 PPG on 45.7% shooting from the field, 37.5% from three and 67.6% from the foul line while allowing 64.5 PPG on 41% shooting from the field and 32% from three this season.
Western Michigan is 2-5 ATS in their last 7 games overall and 2-9 ATs in their last 11 neutral site games while the over is 6-1 in their last 7 games following a loss. IPFW is 4-10 ATS in their last 14 games overall and 1-4 ATS in their last 5 Saturday games while the under is 19-7 in their last 26 games following a win.
I get that this line looks funny, but I’m not sold on Western Michigan up to this point in the season. The Broncos just haven’t looked good early on and I think that IPFW can take advantage of that. Give me the Mastodons here laying the points.