excerpt:
...The Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders and the Rhode Island Rams meet in college basketball action from the Thomas M. Ryan Center on Sunday afternoon.
The Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders will be desperately looking for a win after losing 8 in a row with a 74-56 loss to Ole Miss in their last outing. Antonio Green led the Blue Raiders with 22 points on 7 of 17 shooting with 5 threes while Reggie Scurry added 13 points, not missing a shot on the night, going 4 for 4 from the field and 5 of 5 at the foul line. Jayce Johnson added 12 points and a team-high 7 rebounds to round out the trio of double-digit scorers for Middle Tennessee in the losing effort. Donovan Sims added 5 points with 6 rebounds and a team-high 4 steals in the loss for Middle Tennessee. Green leads Middle Tennessee in scoring with 18.3 points per game while Sims leads the Blue Raiders in assists with 2.3 assists per game and Karl Gamble leads Middle Tennessee on the glass with 6.7 rebounds per game this season. As a team, Middle Tennessee is averaging 65.5 points per game on 41.3% shooting from the field, 28.6% from behind the 3-point line and 68.7% from the foul line this season.
The Rhode Island Rams will be looking to find some consistency after splitting their last 10 games and alternating wins and losses in each of their last 4 following a 68-60 loss to Hawaii in their last outing. Jeff Dowtin led the Rams with 17 points on 7 of 14 shooting with 3 threes while Cyril Langevine added 11 points and 14 rebounds for the double-double and Fatts Russell chipped in 10 points with a team-high 7 assists to finish off the trio of double-digit scorers for the Rams in the losing effort. Jermaine Harris added 6 points with 4 rebounds and 3 steals as well in defeat. Dowtin leads the Rams with an average of 16.6 points and 4 assists per game while Langevine leads Rhode Island in rebounding by averaging a double-double per game with 15.4 points to go along with his team-high average of 10.5 rebounds per game this season. As a team, Rhode Island is averaging 71.5 points per game on 40.9% shooting from the field, 24.8% from behind the arc and 67.1% from the foul line this season.
Middle Tennessee is 5-16 ATS in their last 21 games overall and 2-14 ATS in their last 16 non-conference games while the under is 4-1 in their last 5 road games. Rhode Island is 3-7 ATS in their last 10 games overall and 1-4 ATS in their last 5 games against a team with a losing record while the under is 10-4 in their last 14 home games.
The Blue Raiders went from being the perennial team to beat in C-USA and a fixture in the big tournament in March, to a team that’s getting beat down left and right and has issues scoring the basketball, breaking the 60-point mark just twice in their last 8 games. Rhode Island isn’t normally the kind of team to blow teams out, but it’s hard to back the Blue Raiders when Middle Tennessee hasn’t covered a lined game this season, going 0-10 ATS. Middle Tennessee has lost their 3 road games by a combined 69 points, an average of 23 per game...