The Marshall Thundering Herd and the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers meet in college basketball action from the E.A. Diddle Coliseum on Saturday afternoon.
The Marshall Thundering Herd will look to rebound from their 86-72 loss to Western Kentucky last time out. Taevion Kinsey leads the Herd in scoring with 18.9 PPG along with 5.1 RPG and 4.4 APG while Obinna Anochili-Killen has 12 PPG and a team-high 6.4 RPG to lead Marshall on the glass. Andrew Taylor has 14.5 PPG with 5.1 RPG and a team-high 4.4 APG to lead the Herd in assists and round out the group of double-digit scorers for Marshall so far this season. As a team, Marshall is averaging 74.4 PPG on 44.1% shooting from the field, 29.6% from three and 70.6% from the foul line while allowing 76.9 PPG on 45.3% shooting from the field and 34.3% from three this season.
The Western Kentucky Hilltoppers will try to build on their win over Marshall and sweep the home and home here. Dayvion McKnight leads the Hilltoppers in scoring and assists with 16.1 PPG with 5.4 RPG and a team-high 5.7 APG while Jairus Hamilton has 13 PPG with 5.6 RPG. Camron Justice has 14.9 PPG with 3.3 APG and Josh Anderson has 12.4 PPG to make up the group of double-digit scorers for WKU this season. Luke Frampton has 9 PPG and Jamarion Sharp also has a team-high 7.3 RPG for the Hilltoppers this season. As a team, Western Kentucky is averaging 76 PPG on 47.4% shooting from the field, 36.4% from three and 71.8% from the foul line while allowing 69.5 PPG on 41.7% shooting from the field and 33.7% from three this year.
Marshall is 1-6 ATS in their last 7 Saturday games and 1-7 ATS in their last 8 road games against a team with a winning home record while the under is 4-0 in their last 4 games following a double-digit loss at home. Western Kentucky is 6-1 ATS in their last 7 home games against a team with a losing road record and 4-0 ATS in their last 4 home games against a team with a road winning percentage below .400 while the under is 6-1 in their last 7 games following an ATS win.
I get the case to be made for Marshall as the Herd would like revenge after WKU just beat them on their own floor. However, WKU is just the far better team here and Marshall just hasn’t been able to cut the mustard for much of the season, especially defensively. The Hilltoppers are waking up at the right time and I think the Hilltoppers bag a huge win and cover to finish the regular season.