The Montana Grizzlies and the Weber State Wildcats meet in college basketball action from the Idaho Central Arena on Thursday afternoon.
The Montana Grizzlies come into the conference tournament as the #5 seed following a 16-13 record including an 11-9 conference record this season. Josh Bannan leads Montana in scoring and rebounding with 15.2 PPG and a team-high 8.2 RPG to lead the Griz on the glass as well while Robby Beasley III has 11.8 PPG and Brandon Whitney has 11 PPG to cap off the trio of double-digit scorers for Montana so far this season. Cameron Parker also has 9.3 PPG with a team-high 4.6 APG to lead the Grizzlies in the assist department this season. As a team, Montana is averaging 72.7 PPG on 45.4% shooting from the field, 35.1% from three and 79.7% from the foul line while allowing 66.9 PPG on 43.7% shooting from the field and 35.8% from three this season.
The Weber State Wildcats come in as the #4 seed, finishing with an overall mark of 20-11 including a 13-7 record in Big Sky conference play. Koby McEwen leads the Wildcats in scoring with 18.2 PPG while Seikou Sisoho-Jawara leads the Wildcats in assists, logging 12.6 PPG as well as 3 APG. Dillon Jones has 12.1 PPG with a team-high 10.6 RPG to average a double-double per game and lead Weber State on the glass and JJ Overton has 12.5 PPG to make up the group of double-digit scorers for Weber State so far this season. As a team, Weber State is averaging 76.7 PPG on 47.5% shooting from the field, 34% from three and 75.2% from the foul line while allowing 70.8 PPG on 43.9% shooting from the field and 37.1% from three this season.
Montana is 0-4 ATS in their last 4 Thursday games and 1-7 ATS in their last 8 games as an underdog while the over is 9-1 in their last 10 games overall. Weber State is 1-9 ATS in their last 10 games overall and 0-5 ATS in their last 5 games against a team with a winning record while the over is 17-8 in their last 25 games following an ATS loss.
I get the case to be made either way here, but I’m looking at the over as a stronger play. These two teams hit the over together in each of the two meetings this season and I just don’t know how we have a total this low between two teams that can score into the 70s with relative ease. I’ll back the over in this one.