Eastern Washington (4-9) vs Montana (7-6)
Game Info: Thursday, January 2, 2025 at 9:00 pm (Reese Court)
The Line: Betting Odds: Eastern Washington -1 / Montana +1 — Over/Under: 154.5
The Montana Grizzlies and the Eastern Washington Eagles meet Thursday in college basketball action from Reese Court. Here’s a Montana vs Eastern Washington prediction. We will look at this from a betting perspective and determine the best Montana vs Eastern Washington pick. We will examine:
The Montana Grizzlies’ recent form and player performance
The Eastern Washington Eagles’ recent form and player performance
Recent betting trends and streaks involving the Montana Grizzlies
Recent betting trends and streaks involving the Eastern Washington Eagles
Recent betting trends in games played between Montana and Eastern Washington
A summary that ties it all together and produces a favorable betting outcome for the Montana vs Eastern Washington game
Montana Grizzlies Betting Preview
The Grizzlies’ 2024-25 season kicked off on a pretty meager 2-3 run. The two wins were over Hawaii Hilo and Northwest Indian. Otherwise, it was losses to Oregon, Tennessee, and Utah State. Montana hit a four-game win streak after that, beating Denver, Utah Tech, Cal State Northridge, and South Dakota State. Since then, however, it’s been a 1-3 run with a lone win over Montana Tech around losses to St. Thomas MN, Northern Iowa, and San Francisco.
In the San Francisco game way back on December 21, the Grizzles came out of the break sporting a 10-point deficit of 36-26. Montana recovered slightly on a 41-35 run from there but still took the loss 71-67. Leading the team in the losing effort was Joe Pridgen with 21 points and 10 rebounds for a double-double. Te’Jon Sawyer added 13 points with two rebounds, and Kai Johnson led the bench players with 10 points, three rebounds, and one assist.
Eastern Washington Eagles Betting Preview
Over on the Eastern Washington side, they limped out of the gate with a 1-7 stretch over their first eight games. The Eagles took out Seattle U in their second game of the season. The losses otherwise were versus Colorado, Missouri, Cal Poly, Washington State, Cal Baptist, UC Santa Barbara, and Utah. Eastern Washington has gotten better since then on a 3-2 run. Those losses came courtesy of South Dakota State and Washington. Otherwise, it’s been wins over North Dakota, Lincoln University CA, and Eastern Oregon in that stretch of games.
Matched up against Eastern Oregon on Monday, the Eagles held a commanding lead 45-29 at the break. Eastern Washington kept it going in the second with a 44-34 run and took the win 89-63. Tops in scoring was Emmett Marquardt with 17 points and seven boards with three assists. Both Sebastian Hartmann and Andrew Cook added 14 points apiece, combining for nine rebounds (together) and five assists (all from Cook).
Why the Eastern Washington Eagles will win
- Eastern Washington has won each of its last nine night games at Reese Court.
- Montana has lost eight of its last nine road games.
- The home team has won the first half in each of Eastern Washington’s last four games.
Why the Montana Grizzlies will win
- Montana has won four of its last five night games.
- Eastern Washington has lost the first half in six of its last seven night games.
Montana vs Eastern Washington Prediction
I’ll just stay with Montana here. The Grizzlies have been off the court for quite a while (December 21) and may start cold initially. That said, this is a great matchup for Montana to get back into the groove, and they should record a win—on paper at least. In any case, During their last matchup versus San Francisco, the Grizzlies shot pretty well from the floor (45.5 percent) and had a 35-31 rebounding advantage. The major difference was the 4-of-17 (23.5 percent) from the 3-point range; the Dons conversely hit 10 of their 26 tries (38.5 percent). Montana is giving up a ton of points during this current 1-3 stretch: 71 or more in all three losses.
As for Eastern Washington, they posted a much-needed win over an overmatched Eastern Oregon team in their last outing. The Eagles shot 48.3 percent from the field in that one and hit an excellent 20-of-22 (90.9 percent) from the line. That makes a whopping 196 combined points over the last two games, though to be fair neither of those teams were anywhere near the caliber of Montana—or most other teams on the Eagles’ schedule.