Kent State at St. Mary's (-3.5) - 7:30pm Pacific - Game #759-760
St. Mary's head coach Randy Bennett has done an amazing job.  The team had won only two games the season before he took over and he has led them to seasons of 9, 15, 19, and 25 wins including an NCAA tournament birth last year.  The Gaels actually purposely scheduled only a few games during the first semester as they awaited UNLV transfer point guard John Winston to become eligible.  His first two starts were losses at Arizona and at Air Force but St. Mary's played reasonably well, leading at halftime in both games as large underdogs.  The Gaels have won three straight games since and Winston hit a game winner two nights ago.  6-10 senior forward Daniel Kickert is a great all around player and legit NBA prospect.  The Gaels are huge inside with 7-0 senior Reda Rhalimi starting at center and 7-1 junior Blake Sholberg coming off the bench.  Crafty junior G/F Brett Collins can get to the rim seemingly whenever he wants and starting shooting guard Todd Golden is hitting 50% from 3-point range. 

Kent State comes in at 6-3 but does not have any high quality wins.  They lost the services of starting senior center Nate Gerwig to a sprained knee in practice before the start of this tournament.  He missed Wednesday's game and is expected out 1-3 weeks.  Gerwig is third on the team in scoring and second in rebounding.  They will miss him against the big front line of SMC.  Reserve guard Omni Smith (thigh bruise) was limited to just 5 minutes last night.  His status is day to day.  The Flashes had to rally from an 8 point half-time deficit to beat Division I-AA foe Concordia last night.  Kent State is just 6-11 in true road games dating back to last season. 

St. Mary's is one of the favorites to finish second behind Gonzaga in the WCC.  They have talent, are very well coached, and play very well at home.  Dating back to last season, SMC is 18-2 in home games.  Their only home loss this year came vs Rutgers before point guard Winston became eligible.  This line is too low.  Give the points.