#707/708 ASA CBB TOP PLAY ON 10* Under 125 Points – St Marys vs Western Kentucky, Wednesday at 9:00 PM ET - NOTE – All NIT games are being played in Frisco, TX so no home court advantage. The strength of both of these teams are their defenses. St Marys ranks 9th nationally in defensive efficiency and WKU ranks 81st. Both offenses rank outside the top 100 in offensive efficiency with Ste Marys sitting down near 200th in that category. Neither team likes to play at a fast pace, especially the Gaels who rank 347th in tempo. If you take out their 3 games vs Gonzaga (#1 in the country in offensive efficiency) the St Marys defense allowed just 59 PPG in conference play. Offensively they only averaged 59 PPG in WCC play shooting just 39% from the field and 25% from beyond the arc. They rank 328th nationally in 3-point shooting at under 30% for the season. Needless to say this offense isn’t any where close to the sharp shooting teams St Marys has had in the past. The only 2 defenses in the WCC that rank in the top 100 are BYU & Gonzaga. In those games St Marys averaged just 56 PPG in their 5 meetings with those 2 teams. The Hilltopper defense also ranks in the top 100 and was outstanding all year allowing 70 points or more just 4 times in 17 Conference USA games. St Marys offense efficiency (198th) would rank 10th in CUSA this season so we don’t look for much from them on offense. CUSA doesn’t have a single defense ranked in the top 30 in efficiency so this will be a better defense by a wide margin than anyone WKY has faced in conference play (St Marys is 9th nationally as mentioned above). Neither team relies heavily on shooting 3’s (both accumulate less than 29% of their points from beyond the arc) and neither team fouls very often. So it looks like the majority of points will be scored from inside the arc which favors the Under. This sets up to be a low possession game with defenses running the show. We think there is a very solid chance that neither team reaches 60 points here so while it’s set very low at 125, there is a reason for that and we like the UNDER.