Pacific vs. Santa Clara College Basketball Picks, Odds, Predictions 3/5/21

The Santa Clara Broncos and the Pacific Tigers meet in a WCC conference tournament second round matchup in college basketball action from the Orleans Arena on Friday night.

The Santa Clara Broncos come into this one fresh off of a 95-86 win over Portland in the first round on Thursday. Keshawn Justice led the Broncos with 22 points on 7 of 12 shooting with 5 threes and 5 rebounds while Jalen Williams came right behind with 21 points on 6 of 12 shooting with 3 threes and a team-high 4 assists. Guglielmo Caruso and Christian Carlyle each had 14 points with Caruso shooting 7 of 10 and logging a team-high 7 rebounds with 3 assists. DJ Mitchell also had 12 points with 6 rebounds as well in the victory for Santa Clara to round out the scoring in double figures for the Broncos. Josip Vrankic had just 4 points but still leads Santa Clara in scoring and rebounding with 15.3 PPG and 8.7 RPG while Williams leads the Broncos in assists with 2.3 APG this season. As a team, Santa Clara is averaging 67.5 PPG on 41.9% shooting from the field and 29.8% from three while allowing 68.9 PPG on 40.3% shooting from the field and 31.2% from three this season.

The Pacific Tigers enter this one as the #6 see after fishing the regular season at 9-8 including 6-7 in conference play after a 76-69 win over San Francisco to finish the year. Daniss Jenkins leads the Tigers in scoring with 11.9 PPG while Jeremiah Bailey and Broc Finstuen each have 11.3 PPG to round out the trio of double-digit scorers for Pacific up to this point in the year with Bailey logging 6.1 RPG and Finstuen pulling down 5.9 RPG this season. Pierre Crockrell II has 9.8 PPG with 4.1 APG to lead Pacific in assists and Jordan Bell has 8.7 PPG with a team-high 6.8 RPG to lead the Tigers on the glass. As a team, Pacific is averaging 69.4 PPG on 43.5% shooting from the field and 30.1% from three while allowing 70.1 PPG on 43% shooting from the field and 33.8% from three this season.

Santa Clara is 1-4 ATS in their last 5 games following a win and 12-5-2 ATS in their last 19 neutral site games as an underdog while the over is 5-1 in their last 6 games overall. Pacific is 4-0 ATS in their last 4 games as a favorite and 2-6-2 ATS in their last 10 neutral site games while the over is 6-1 in their last 7 games against a team with a winning record. The underdog is 10-4 ATS in the last 14 meetings between these two teams.

It’s been hard to really split hairs when trying to get on a side here, so maybe going with the free bucket and Santa Clara is the way to go. However, I’m a bit alarmed at how long it took the Broncos to put a lowly Portland team away, and the Broncos still gave up 86 to the Pilots in the win. Pacific has had their ups and downs, but they won the lone meeting this season by 21 points and while I’m not sure we get the same margin of victory, I think a win and cover from Pacific ends up being the result here.