The No. 2 seed Marquette Golden Eagles (28-6, 20-3 Big East) take on the No. 15 seed Vermont Catamounts (23-10, 17-2 America East) Friday at Nationwide Arena in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
Vermont beat the UMass Lowell River Hawks 72-59 at Roy L Patrick Gymnasium on Saturday in the America East Conference Tourney Championship, their 15th win in a row.
Dylan Penn led the way with 21 points. Marquette won their ninth in a row in the Big East Conference Tourney Championship on Saturday at Madison Square Garden, beating the Xavier Musketeers 65-51. Tyler Kolek had 20 points and eight rebounds, leading the team.
The Golden Eagles won the last meeting between the teams 91-81 at BMO Harris Bradley Center in December 2017. Penn (13.5 ppg), Finn Sullivan (11.9), and Aaron Deloney (11.6) have led the Catamounts in scoring this season.
Meanwhile, Robin Duncan is contributing 7.3 rebounds and 4.4 assists per game.Kam Jones (15.0 ppg) and Kolek (13.3) have been the primary providers of the Golden Eagles’ offense. Kolek also has distributed 7.7 assists per game, second-most in the NCAA. Oso Ighodaro has posted 5.9 rebounds per game.
The Golden Eagles rank as one of the top scoring offenses in the nation, 19th-best with 79.9 points per game. Vermont is 10-0 in the last 10 games with an average margin of +14.7 (79.4-64.7).
For the season, the Catamounts are averaging 73.0 points per game, compared to 66.6 for opponents. Marquette has a 9-1 record over the last 10, scoring 76.8 points per game on average while allowing 72.4 (+4.4 margin).
CATAMOUNTS HOT/COLD
(Last Five | Season Average | Differential)
Points + Rebounds + Assists:
Dylan Penn: 25.0 | 18.7 | +6.3
Nick Fiorillo: 4.4 | 7.4 | -3.0
Points per game:
Dylan Penn: 18.8 | 13.5 | +5.3
Finn Sullivan: 7.4 | 11.9 | -4.5
GOLDEN EAGLES HOT/COLD
(Last Five | Season Average | Differential)
Points + Rebounds + Assists:
Sean Jones: 2.6 | 5.4 | -2.8
Points per game:
Tyler Kolek: 19.0 | 13.3 | +5.7
SportsTips’ College Basketball Pick:
Marquette -10.5 (-110)
Want up to a $1K risk free bet for this pick?
Claim with 
today!
If you need more news, information and predictions, head over to our college basketball hub page for all your college basketball needs!
*Odds correct at time of publication, courtesy of BetMGM.
