The Prairie View A&M Panthers and the UIC Flames meet Tuesday in college basketball action from UIC Pavilion. Prairie View enters this matchup at 4-5 overall following a loss to Northwestern in their last outing. As for UIC, they’re 6-4 on the season. The Flames beat Western Michigan in their most recent game. Check back all season long for free college basketball picks at Sports Chat Place.
Prairie View went 4-2 over their first six games this year. The wins in that time were over Kansas CC, North American, Washington State and Arkansas State. Since then it’s been three straight losses to Oklahoma State, Rice and Northwestern.
On Sunday versus Northwestern, the Panthers held a 29-24 edge going into the second half. Prairie View was outscored 37-22 from there and lost 61-51. Leading scorer Jeremiah Gambrell posted 16 points with four rebounds.
Over on the UIC side, they hit a 5-2 run over their first seven games featuring wins over Trinity Christian, Jacksonville State, Stonehill, Holy Cross and Green Bay. The Flames would lose their next pair before a win over Western Michigan.
Matched up against Western Michigan on Saturday, the Flames took a 30-18 edge into the break. UIC was outscored 38-32 from there but held on for the 62-56 win. Jace Carter took the top spot in scoring with 18 points and three assists.
PICK: I’m going to try UIC in this one. The Flames had a couple of tough matchups versus Missouri State and Drake recently that halted their win streak. Overall UIC is still playing reasonably well this year, even if they’ve failed to top 67 points in six of their 10 games. As for Prairie View, they haven’t eclipsed 67 points in any of their last four games either. This should be an interesting matchup—and a competitive one—but I like UIC a little better on the cover.