Southern Utah Thunderbirds vs. Montana Grizzlies Prediction & Game Preview - 2/7/2022

Time: 9 p.m. ET

Venue: Dahlberg Arena, Missoula, MT

Where to watch: ESPN+

DraftKings: Montana -1

BetMGM: Montana -1.5

Caesars: Montana -1.5

Southern Utah: 15-6 (9-2 Big Sky)

Montana: 15-8 (8-4 Big Sky)

I like the Southern Utah Thunderbirds to defeat the Montana Grizzlies on Monday night in Missoula.

Have you ever heard of a city named Missoula? It sounds like a very nice city. So much so that Bobby Hauck left UNLV to go back there. Weird, right?

But that's football, let's focus on basketball. And the one thing that we know about SUU is that that basketball team will play very hard on any given night. Head coach Todd Simon has that team winners of nine of 11 Big Sky Conference games and on pace with Montana State and Weber State near the top of the conference standings.

Southern Utah comes in on a four game winning streak and recently won by 12 against the Eastern Washington Eagles on Saturday night. Tevian Jones led the way with 19 points during this offensive explosion in terms of shooting percentages. SUU shots 51.8 percent, while EWU made 50.9 percent of its own attempts.

The Thunderbirds defense has also found a way to settle in and play much better as of late. A group that averages 73 points allowed for the season, the Thunderbirds have held opponents to below that in their last three games. The only exception was a 3 point victory in overtime against Portland State on January 27th.

Southern Utah comes into this game at the right time, facing a Montana team that has lost consecutive games and has allowed at least 80 points in both of those games. The Grizzlies lost by 23 points to the Idaho State Bengals, who have only four wins now this season after the dismantling of Montana. If your name was not Brandon Whitney, you likely did not have a good game for Montana last week. Whitney had 19 points and made all seven of his free throw attempts, and Cameron Parker had 15 points off the bench but Montana still shot 41% from the field and made just two of their 16 three point attempts.

Idaho State shot 62% from the floor. That's all you need to know.

If this Montana defense shows up again on Monday, this game will not last long. Southern Utah is playing great basketball at this moment with plenty of room to improve especially on the defensive end. Having another solid defensive outing against a team that just gave up 62% shooting seems like a perfect recipe to me. Southern Utah by 14

The over is 42-26 in Southern Utah's games the past three seasons.

Southern Utah is 3-10 ATS this season after playing as a favorite the previous game.

Montana is 33-12 straight up as a favorite in its last 45.

PG: Dre Marin

SG: John Knight III
SF: Maizen Fausett
PF: Tevian Jones
C: Jason Spurgin

PG: Brandon Whitney

SG: Robbie Beasley III
SF: D.J. Carter-Hollinger
PF: Mack Anderson
C: Josh Bannan