Colonial Athletic foes will collide when the Charleston Cougars (9-4) face the Hofstra Pride (10-4) at Carolina First Arena. Action begins at 7:00 pm ET on Thursday, Jan. 7.
The Cougars are hoping to rebound after their 78-70 loss to William & Mary in their last matchup. Marquise Pointer was the team’s leading scorer with 23 points. The Pride, meanwhile, are coming off a 90-58 win against Towson in their last game. Brian Bernardi led the game in scoring by accounting for 21 points on 6-for-11 shooting.
Hofstra takes on Charleston as a three-point favorite. The Over/Under (O/U) for the matchup is sitting at 146 points. While the Cougars have a good Straight Up (SU) record (9-4), they’ve been poor Against The Spread (ATS) with a 3-5 record. They have a solid 7-3 SU record over their last 10 games, but have not fared as well ATS (2-5).
In the other locker room, the Pride have records of 5-5-1 ATS and 10-4 SU. The Pride are the better of the two teams when it comes to assist-to-turnover ratio, ranking 50th in Division I at 1.33.
The conference foes meet for what will be their first head-to-head battle of the season. Hofstra won the last game in the matchup, bumping its SU record to 3-1. The teams are even ATS, with a 2-2 record.
Predictions: SU Winner – Hof, ATS Winner – Chrstn, O/U – Over
Notes
College of Charleston is 7-2 SU in its last 9 games.
Hofstra sits at a perfect 2-0 SU record against the Colonial Athletic Conference, while Charleston has split its meetings against the conference (1-1).
Charleston has allowed an average of 60.0 points per home game this season. Hofstra averages 80.7 points per away game, ranking 17th in scoring.
The Hofstra Pride rank 41st for their offensive rating of 113.8. The Charleston Cougars have a defensive rating of 97.1 (ranked 94th).
The Charleston Cougars average a field goal percentage of 44.8% this season. The Hofstra Pride have a winning 4-2 record in games where opponents have a FG% of 44.8% or greater.
The Hofstra Pride rank lower for their field goal percentage (124th) than their effective field goal percentage (74th), while the Charleston Cougars rank the same for both metrics (136th).
Hofstra ranks 67th in assists, recording 15.7 per game. Charleston performs worse at 197th with 13.2 assists per game.
The Charleston Cougars make an average of 7.8 steals per game. When the Hofstra Pride allow 7 or more steals, they are a winning 2-1.
