The North Dakota Fighting Hawks and the Kansas City Roos meet in college basketball action from the Swinney Recreation Center on Saturday night.
The North Dakota Fighting Hawks will look to bounce back and snap a seven-game losing skid after an 80-76 loss to Oral Roberts last time out. Paul Bruns leads the Hawks in scoring with 13.9 PPG along with 5 RPG while Caleb Nero has 11.7 PPG with 4 RPG in 10 games as the only other double-digit scorer for North Dakota so far this season. Mitchell Sueker has 9.9 PPG with 3.8 RPG and Matt Norman has 9.6 PPG while Tsotne Tsartsidze also has 8.4 PPG with a team-high 5.9 RPG as well this season. As a team, North Dakota is averaging 70.5 PPG on 40.8% shooting from the field, 32.5% from three and 71.8% from the foul line while allowing 78.5 PPG on 48.9% shooting from the field and 37.5% from three this season.
The Kansas City Roos will look to build on their 80-77 win over North Dakota State last time out. Evan Gilyard II leads the Roos in scoring and assists with 13.1 PPG and 2.7 APG while Josiah Allick has 11.7 PPG with 5.5 RPG. Marvin Nesbitt Jr. has 10.4 PPG with a team-high 6.1 RPG to lead the Roos on the glass and to make up the trio of double-digit scorers for UMKC so far this season. Anderson Kopp also has 9.3 PPG for UMKC on the year. As a team, UMKC is averaging 70.1 PPG on 45.7% shooting from the field, 33.6% from three and 67.4% from the foul line while allowing 64.2 PPG on 43.3% shooting from the field and 31% from three this season.
North Dakota is 0-4 ATS in their last 4 Saturday games and 2-8 ATS in their last 10 games as a road underdog while the over is 4-1 in their last 5 road games. Kansas City is 0-4 ATS in their last 4 games following an ATS win while the under is 6-1-1 in their last 8 games as a favorite.
I get why KC is favored at home here as the Hawks are an abysmal 0-10 SU on the road this season. However, the Hawks just took the Oral Roberts Golden Eagles down to the wire and Kansas City just hasn’t been playing well enough at home lately to justify laying this number. I’ll take my chances with North Dakota and the points in this one.