Montana State vs Northern Colorado 3/12/22 College Basketball Picks, Predictions, Odds

The Montana State Bobcats and the Northern Colorado Bears meet in college basketball action from the Idaho Central Arena on Saturday night.

The Northern Colorado Bears will look to build on their win over 86-79 win over Portland State in their last game. Daylen Kountz leads the Bears in scoring with 21.2 PPG along with 4.1 RPG while Matt Johnson has 14.1 PPG with a team-high 3.8 APG this season. Bodie Hume has 11 PPG with 6 RPG and Dru Kuxhausen has 11.2 PPG to make up the group of double-digit scorers for Northern Colorado State so far this season while Kur Jongkuch has a team-high 8.4 RPG to lead Northern Colorado in rebounding this season. As a team, Northern Colorado is averaging 78.7 PPG on 48.1% shooting from the field, 38.5% from three and 71.4% from the foul line while allowing 76.8 PPG on 46.1% shooting from the field and 37.1% from three this season.

The Montana State Bobcats will look to build on a 69-66 win over Weber State last time out. Xavier Bishop leads the Bobcats in scoring and assists with 13.8 PPG and 4.2 APG while Jubrile Belo has 13.2 PPG with a team-high 6.8 RPG to lead Montana State on the glass so far this season. Amin Adamu has 11.5 PPG to make up the group of double-digit scorers for Montana State up to this point in the season. As a team, Montana State is averaging 76.7 PPG on 47.1% shooting from the field, 36.5% from three and 75% from the foul line while allowing 68.9 PPG on 42.6% shooting from the field and 32.7% from three this season.

Northern Colorado is 4-0 ATS in their last 4 games against a team with a winning percentage above .600 while the over is 6-1 in their last 7 Saturday games. Montana State is 7-2 ATS in their last 9 neutral site games and 2-6 ATS in their last 8 games following a win while the over is 7-2-1 in their last 10 games overall.

I get the case to be made for the Bears given Northern Colorado’s rock solid offense. However, the defense leaves a lot to be desired for the Bears and the Bobcats are one of the few teams in the Big Sky that can go toe-to-toe with Northern Colorado offensively. I’ll side with the Bobcats to win and cover in this one and go dancing for the first time since 1996.