Free Pick | NCAA | Thursday | March 14

#803 CS Northridge +5.5 over Hawaii 8:00 PM CT

Since losing five in a row in late January and early February, CS Northridge competed well down the stretch winning five of the final 10 regular season games even with a pair of losses by one and two points. The Matadors held off UC Santa Barbara last night and while a taxing game with an extra session might make sense to be a challenging turnaround, having positive momentum and a game under their belt in an unfamiliar venue could be beneficial. Hawaii has been on a 9-3 run since late January and should be considered a sleeper in this tournament. Only two wins came against the two teams ahead of Hawaii in the standings however and there were two overtime wins on the recent run of success. Hawaii split with CS Northridge this season with the win hosting the Matadors coming by only two points just a week ago. CS Northridge won by 10 hosting Hawaii and in last week’s loss Hawaii was given 21 more free throw attempts. CS Northridge is on an 8-2 ATS run in this series and is priced almost identically in Henderson as the Matadors were in Honolulu last week. CS Northridge has nine road wins this season as this is a team suited for potential success in this tournament.