Free Pick | NCAA | Thursday | Feb. 12

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#817 Idaho State +3.5 over Eastern Washington 8:00 PM CT

Eastern Washington picked up back-to-back solid wins in the Treasure State last week with narrow wins in Missoula and Bozeman to climb to 5-6 in Big Sky play. One of those five wins was an 84-66 result in mid-January at Idaho State for the most convincing win of the conference season for the Eagles. Eastern Washington shot over 53 percent from 3-point range in that game and received 34 free throw attempts on the road for a result that will be difficult to replicate. This is the first home game in Cheney since January 24, but the Eagles are only 3-3 S/U at home this season in Division I games and both Big Sky home wins came by slim margins. Eastern Washington is the best 3-point shooting team in the conference but also the worst 2-point shooting team in the Big Sky and given that the Eagles take relatively few numbers of 3-point shots per game, it hasn’t been a winning formula until the surge in the past week. Idaho State is just a slight underdog on the road tonight despite seven losses in a row. Several of those defeats have been in very tight finishes however and the Bengals have won 10 games this season including four games away from home. The Big Sky statistics make the Bengals look a bit stronger than the 3-9 record would suggest and Ryan Looney’s team has battled through a difficult path so far, already playing conference leader Portland State twice. Idaho State is 3-1 ATS in the past four meetings in this series including back-to-back covers in Cheney, with a S/U win by 24 points last March on the road in this series, with the visitor on a 4-1 ATS run in the past five meetings between these teams.