The Northwestern State Demons and the Texas A&M-CC Islanders meet in college basketball action from the Merrell Center on Thursday night.
The Northwestern State Demons come into this one looking to bounce back from a 104-68 loss to Baylor in their last game. Kendal Coleman leads the Demons in scoring and rebounding with 15.1 PPG and 8.2 RPG as the only double-digit scorer for Northwestern State so far this season. Cedric Garrett has 7.2 PPG and Brian White has a team-high 3.8 APG as well this season. As a team, Northwestern State is averaging 69.4 PPG on 43.4% shooting from the field, 31.9% from three and 61.2% from the foul line while allowing 81.4 PPG on 47.3% shooting from the field and 36% from three this season.
The Texas A&M-CC Islanders will try to add to a 101-49 rout of subdivision Sur Ross St. last time out. Isaac Mushila leads the Islanders in scoring and rebounding with 14.1 PPG and 8.5 RPG while Trevian Tennyson has 11.4 PPG as the only other double-digit scorer for Texas A&M-CC so far this season. Simeon Fryer has 8.7 PPG with 3.6 RPG and Terrion Murdix has a team-high 4.1 APG as well this season. As a team, Texas A&M-CC is averaging 80.3 PPG on 47.2% shooting from the field, 34.8% from three and 71.8% from the foul line while allowing 67.9 PPG on 42.5% shooting from the field and 32.9% from three this season.
I get why a lot of people would be on Texas A&M-CC here as the Islanders have the far better record and actually have a win over a D-I opponent, which isn’t a fact that Northwestern State can match. However, the Demons played a fairly tough non-conference schedule and while I’m not sure they win this game outright, a lot of recent meetings have come down to the wire or gone the way of Northwestern State so I’ll take my chances with the Demons and the points here.