Utah Runnin' Utes (3-1) vs St. John's Red Storm (2-2)
2023-11-19 17:30:00 EDT
The Line: Betting Odds: Utah Runnin' Utes -4.5 -- Over/Under: 151.5
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The St. John’s Red Storm and the Utah Utes meet Sunday in college basketball action from TD Arena. St. John’s is currently 2-2 this season. The Red Storm lost to Dayton in their most recent matchup. As for Utah, they’re 3-1 this year and coming off a 10-point loss to Houston on Friday. Check back all season long for free college basketball picks at Sports Chat Place.
St. John’s Red Storm
The Storm have been a mixed bag so far this year, alternating wins with losses. St. John’s handled Stony brook 90-74 in their opener with 51.5 percent shooting from the field, but came back to an 89-73 loss to Michigan in game two. The Red Storm were able to fend off North Texas in game three 53-52 despite shooting just 34 percent from the floor.
St. John’s got back into the loss column with Friday’s game versus Dayton. The Storm were outscored 50-41 in the second half on the way to an 88-81 defeat. Joel Soriano led the team on his 21 points and nine rebounds, while Jordan Dingle added 14 points. Daniss Jenkins posted 12 points with eight assists as well.
Utah Utes
Over on the Utes’ side, their year opened up with three straight wins. Those came 101-66 versus Eastern Washington, 83-53 over UC Riverside and 77-70 against Wake Forest. In the victory over the Demon Deacons, Utah shot 50 percent from the field and had a dominant advantage on the boards 42-28.
The Utes’ first loss of the season came Friday versus Houston. Utah was down by nine points at the break and didn’t end up gaining any more ground in a 76-66 loss. Gabe Madsen was the team’s leading scorer on 29 points and six rebounds. Branden Carlson posted 17 points with eight boards, and Lawson Lovering chipped in nine points with eight rebounds.
ANDREW’S FREE PICK
I’m going to stay with Utah. The Utes are off to a pretty good start so far, even with the Friday loss against a very good Houston team. Utah hit just 35.8 percent of their shots in that one, along with 32.3 percent from 3-point range (10-of-31) and 72 percent (18-of-25) from the line. The Utes managed 16 team assists but also coughed up 15 turnovers.
As for St. John’s, they hit a nice 48.4 percent from the floor with a 36-32 rebounding edge against Dayton but couldn’t quite keep up on the scoreboard. The Red Storm have hit 73 or more points in three of four games so far, so it wouldn’t be surprising to see a big total here. I like Utah to control the game cover-wise, though.
