The Minnesota Golden Gophers and Princeton Tigers will square off at the Harrah’s Cherokee Center this Saturday night in the Championship game of the Asheville Championship and I think Minnesota has no trouble covering this small spread.
Minnesota was able to defeat Western Kentucky this past Friday behind a solid all-around effort, led by their defense that held the Hilltoppers to just 23 1st half points. Minnesota has some solid offensive weapons led by Jamison Battle and has shown early this season that they can be dangerous from beyond the arc, averaging 10.0 three-pointers per game.
Princeton was able to defeat South Carolina by a 66-62 margin this past Friday night, however, I’m putting that lose more on how bad the Gamecocks looked. Princeton was able to get the victory behind their own strong defensive performance, however, it’s a bit concerning that they lost both the rebounding (45-36) and turnover battles (18-11) against the Gamecocks.
The Golden Gophers are 4-0 ATS in their last 4 games overall and 5-0 ATS in their last 5 neutral site games. The Tigers are 4-1 ATS in their last 5 neutral site games and 13- ATS in their last 16 games overall.
Princeton is going to have a hard time offensively keeping up with Minnesota in this one and as I think Princeton once against struggles with turnovers & rebounding, I think the play here is to take the Golden Gophers to cover this small spread. Good Luck!
AUTHOR: Brett Nault
Follow Brett Nault on Twitter @BrettCU05