The North Dakota Fighting Hawks and the Omaha Mavericks meet in college basketball action from the Baxter Arena on Thursday night.
The North Dakota Fighting Hawks will try to snap a four-game losing skid after a 60-59 loss to South Dakota State last time out. B.J. Omot leads the Fighting Hawks in scoring with 11.1 PPG as the lone double-digit scorer for North Dakota this season. Matt Norman has 7.9 PPG and Tsotne Tsartsidze has a team-high 4.5 RPG to lead North Dakota on the glass. Jalun Trent also has a team-high 3 APG to lead the Fighting Hawks in assists up to this point in the season. As a team, North Dakota is averaging 67.9 PPG on 44.2% shooting from the field, 34.7% from three and 65.8% from the foul line this season.
The Omaha Mavericks will be looking to bounce back from an 80-68 loss to St. Thomas last time out. Frankie Fidler leads the Mavericks in scoring and rebounding with 13 PPG and 5.9 RPG while Marquel Sutton has 11.9 PPG with 5 RPG and JJ White has 10.2 PPG with a team-high 3.9 APG to lead Omaha in the assist department and to round out the group of double-digit scorers for Omaha so far this season. As a team, Omaha is averaging 69.4 PPG on 45% shooting from the field, 32.9% from three and 78.7% from the foul line this season.
North Dakota is 1-4 ATS in their last 5 road games against a team with a winning home record and 4-0 ATS in their last 4 road games after three or more consecutive home games while the under is 4-0 in their last 4 games overall. Omaha is 17-4 ATS in their last 21 Thursday games and 5-1 ATS in their last 6 games following an ATS loss while the over is 9-1 in their last 10 games against a team with a losing record.
I get the case to be made for either side in this game, but I’m going to side with Omaha here. Both teams have been struggling as of late, but I do trust Omaha at home to get the offense going a bit more than I trust North Dakota to figure out their issues on the road. Not a game I’m rushing to bet, but I’d back Omaha in this one.