The Eastern Washington Eagles will be at Dahlberg Arena to take on the Montana Grizzlies in a Big Sky matchup. Action gets underway at 9:05 pm ET on Saturday, Jan. 23.
The Grizzlies are hoping to rebound after their 63-58 loss to Idaho on Thursday. Martin Breunig had a good game in defeat for Montana, recording 20 points and 10 rebounds to earn his eighth double-double of the season. The Eagles are coming off an 85-71 loss to Montana State on Thursday. Bogdan Bliznyuk had a solid game, accounting for his third double-double of the season with 22 points and 13 rebounds.
Montana is a seven-point favorite in this game and the Over/Under (O/U) is 145 points. The Grizzlies enter the game with records of 11-7 Straight Up (SU) and 7-7-1 Against The Spread (ATS).
Across the court, Eastern Washington has a SU record of 9-9 and an ATS record of 7-7. The Eagles convert their shots at a high percentage, ranking 15th in the country at .492. Shifting to the other side of the court, the Eagles allow very few three-pointers on defense with 5.0 given up per game. One advantage for the Eagles could be Montana’s high fouls per game average of 22.0.
This game marks the season’s first head-to-head clash between Montana and Eastern Washington. Their previous game was a Grizzlies victory, bumping their SU record to 7-3 over Eastern Washington in their most recent meetings. At 5-5, they are even ATS. Montana held the advantage in field goals, rebounds, and three-pointers once in the last five matchups. On the other side of the court, Eastern Washington never accomplished this feat in that span.
Predictions: SU Winner – EastWa, ATS Winner – EastWa, O/U – Over
Notes
Montana is 7-1 SU in its last 8 games.
The total has gone UNDER in 4 of Montana’s last 5 games.
Montana is 7-1 SU in its last 8 games at home.
Montana is 1-4 ATS in its last 5 games when playing Eastern Washington.
The total has gone UNDER in 4 of Montana’s last 6 games when playing Eastern Washington.
Montana is 13-2 SU in its last 15 games when playing at home against Eastern Washington.
The Montana Grizzlies have a solid 6-1 SU record against the Big Sky Conference, while the Eastern Washington Eagles have split their meetings with conference opponents, 3-3.
Montana has allowed an average of 59.0 points per home game this season. Eastern Washington averages 74.4 points per away game, ranking 76th in scoring.
With 67.4 possessions and 1.028 points per possession, the Montana Grizzlies perform worse on both metrics than the Eastern Washington Eagles. Eastern Washington averages 69.2 possessions and 1.177 points per possession.
Eastern Washington has the sixth-ranked average effective field goal percentage in the nation at 58.1%. Montana is an even 1-1 when opponents have a similar or higher effective field goal percentage.
On average, the Montana Grizzlies attempt 22.0 three point field goals per game and the Eastern Washington Eagles attempt 26.0. In games where they attempt at least 20 threes, Montana has a formidable 11-3 record, while Eastern Washington is 8-9.
On average, Eastern Washington forces a turnover rate of 17.1%. When Montana turns over the ball at a similar or higher rate, the team has a winning 8-5 record.
