Ohio will be short-handed when it hosts Kent State in this Friday night contest.
The Bobcats recently lost senior forward AJ Clayton to a leg injury and there is no timetable for his return. Clayton was leading the MAC in scoring for much of the season and is the Bobcats’ leading scorer and rebounder. He averages 15.5 points and 5.9 rebounds per game.
Not only is Ohio without its best player, but the Bobcats also lost their other starting big man Aidan Hadaway. The junior is coming off leg surgery and his return this season is in jeopardy. He is averaging 10.4 PPG and 5.7 RPG.
That unfortunate news comes after the Bobcats have lost two games in a row. They lost to Akron, 92-80, last Friday and to Buffalo, 94-87, on Tuesday where they fell to 10-8 overall and 4-2 in MAC play.
Kent State (12-6, 3-3) enters this one off a 19-point win over Toledo on Tuesday. The Golden Flashes have had a couple of surprising conference losses to Western Michigan and Ball State.
We’ll see if they can take advantage of a depleted Ohio squad.
Kent State at Ohio Betting Odds
Ohio is a 1.5-point college basketball odds favorite on BetMGM against Kent State while the Over/Under is at 145.5.
The Moneyline for Ohio is at -110 and at +102 for Kent State.
Kent State at Ohio On TV
The matchup between Ohio and Kent State will be televised on ESPNU.
Tonight’s game tips off at 7 p.m. ET.
Kent State at Ohio Prediction
I predict Kent State wins. I also predict this game goes under 145.5 points.
We saw what happened against Eastern Michigan when Hadaway was out and Clayton played limited minutes. As you can imagine, the Bobcats just aren’t the same team and certainly aren’t as dangerous offensively.
I think those injuries will have a significant impact here against the best defense in the league.
Without their top two options in the frontcourt, the Bobcats won’t be losing much size in this matchup because the Golden Flashes are one of the shortest teams in the country. Still, the guys who step into their spots will be dealing with defending one of the best forwards in the league in VonCameron Davis.
Davis leads the Golden Flashes with 15.6 PPG and averages 4.1 RPG and 2.4 APG. He is great around the rim and I think will be tough to stop tonight. Cli’ron Hornbeak should also pose some problems inside, especially on the glass and on the defensive end. He’s averaging 8.4 points and 6.2 boards per game.
The Golden Flashes allow 64.7 PPG on just 41% shooting. Those are both the best numbers in the conference. According to KenPom, they also force a turnover on 20.9% of their opponents’ possessions, which ranks 40th in the country.
There will likely be a few guys playing for the Bobcats tonight who haven’t seen the court much this season. Expect them to be hounded and to commit a few turnovers against this defense.
Ohio will lean on its trio of guards in Jackson Paveletzke, AJ Brown, and Shereef Mitchell. Paveletzke is second on the team in scoring (12.7 PPG) and second in the conference in assists (5.3/game). Brown averages 11.7 points and shoots 40% from the outside while Mitchell averages 10 points, three rebounds, and three assists per game.
These guys will be able to handle their own, but I think it’ll be a tall task for the Bobcats to come away with a win here in their first game without Clayton and against one of the best teams in the league, especially with the Flashes trying to climb their way back up the league standings.
Kent State is 6-1-1 against the spread on the road and the total has gone under in all eight of those games.
